High School Days
by Thundersplash
Summary: Following the high school lives of NCIS characters. Tony, Ziva, Kate, Abby, and McGee are freshmen, Ari, Gibbs, & Jenny are sophomores. Tiva & Jibbs
1. Another New Semester

_This is my first fan fic I wanted to try a story about NCIS characters in high school. Kate, Tony, McGee, and Abby are freshmen at Naval Hills High. Ziva is a new girl who just moved to US from Israel and she has a sophomore brother Ari. Jenny and Gibbs are sophomores at the school. Ducky is a senior at the school and Vance is the principal of the school._

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS

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"Tony!" Kate yelled angrily as she saw Anthony DiNozzo, her next door neighbour who she has known since they were in kindergarten, stole her journal again.

"Looks like Katie had an interesting dream last night about her secret crush." He said tauntingly as he read the journal. She flushed at the thought of her dream about Ari Haswari last night. Ari is a sophomore who moved from Israel beginning of the year. Tony kept tormenting her about how she has a crush on him even though she doesn't.

"First do NOT call me Katie, and second I do not have a crush on him and you can't just take someone's private journal and read it without their permission. It's called invading privacy."

"Oh really because you see you left it open inside your _public_ table so I just thought that maybe you wanted me to you know -" Tony started to say but Gibbs cut him off with a head slap, "Ouch!" Jenny then came and grabbed her journal from Tony and gave it back to her. Both Gibbs and Jenny are sophomores and they are currently dating. Gibbs is a tall quiet quarterback of the junior team and they're like big siblings to Kate and her friends.

Kate was just about to say thanks when she heard a desperate cry from the other end of the field. The cry belonged to Charles Sterling, or Chip, also known the biggest jock of the school. As she got closer she saw that Ziva David, the new girl from Israel who's also the half-sister of Ari and an old friend of Jenny, had given Chip a black eye and pinned him against the wall.

"Do not ever try to attack me from the behind again or I'll snap your neck right off." She threatened as she released her hands from his neck. Only then did Kate realize that Chip tried pulling a prank on Ziva, a 'tradition' that Chip and his basketball teammates held for every new kid in the school.

Two of Chip's friends tried to help Chip but she gave kicked one of them in the gut and kneed the other one in the groin and they both fell to the ground yelping. Chip got up and tried to fight back but before his fist reached Ziva's face, she grabbed his arm twisted it and forced him to the ground. Just when she was about to break his arm, Ari came up to her and whispered something in her ear in Hebrew. Her face just as emotionless as it had been before, she let go of Chip and stood up. Just as she turned around, Mr. Vance, their principal came and cleared the crowd that gathered up to see the new Israeli girl beat up not just any sophomore but Chip Sterling.

"What is going on here?" Mr. Vance asked angrily with his toothpick in his mouth just like always, "Mr. Sterling, the first day back and you're already in a fight? And Ms. David is it? It is not a good way to start your first day of school now is it?"

"She's completely insane; she appeared out of nowhere and broke my arm and threatened to snap my neck off." Chip told Mr. Vance as soon as he got the chance, his smug smile told everyone that he was looking for revenge.

"Mr. Sterling go to the nurse's office and get patched up and Ms. David since you are not hurt, go to my office now." Vance ordered, ignoring what Chip has just said.

"Whoa! That girl's one of your old friends right Jen? She's got crazy ninja skills." Tony asked.

"Yes my sister, Jenny, and I spent few summers together in Europe." Ari answered for Jenny.

"Really?" Tony said surprised by the sudden arrival of Ari.

"Hello Ari," Jenny greeted him politely, "It seems that Ziva still has her short temper. I hope she doesn't get into too much trouble... even though Chip started it, Ziva hurt him well... pretty badly."

"If you ask me it was time someone taught Chip and his gangs a little lesson. Who do they think they are? I mean they are so arrogant-" Tony said.

"Well, whether they deserved it or not this is definitely a bad start for Ziva," Ari interrupted, "and my father is not going to be pleased when he hear about this." As Ari continued and for the first time since they've met Kate thought that she actually saw some emotions in Ari's eyes. She could see that he really cared for his sister. She thought to herself maybe Ari wasn't as emotionless and as cold as everyone assumed he was.

"Just out of curiosity though, why do you have such a big resentment toward Charles and his friends, Anthony?" Ari asked and before Tony could reply I answered it for him.

"Tony apparently destroyed Chip's dream of becoming a scientist. In third grade Chip was this nerdy science guy and Tony dared him to use his volcano project to make a mess in the teacher's lounge which got them into a lot of trouble. Chip's parents confiscated his science '_equipments'_ and ever since they have been something like mortal enemies."

"Thank you for clearing that up for me Caitlin." Ari had this weird way, or a privilege if you will, of calling everyone by their full first name, even Gibbs who never ever let anyone call him Jethro except for Jenny and Ducky. The only one in the school who also had that privilege was Ducky, a senior friend of Gibbs and Jenny. "It was nice seeing you again Jenny and everyone else as well. Good bye."

Then the bell rang and it meant the start of another semester. Kate knew that it would be a different semester from the last and she had no idea what it means for her and her friends but one thing for sure and that is, it's going to be interesting.

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TBC & please review_


	2. Lunch Hour

_Thank you so much for the reviews. It was so great to read them._

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS

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Tony walked towards his friends as he saw them setting at their usual lunch table after he got his food from the cafeteria. They were serving pasta today, not one of his favourites but it'll do. Their school's food was alright, not the best but affordable for the students so most of the students at the school ate the caf foods at lunch. As he got to the table he sat at the guy's side of the table beside Gibbs.

"Hey Tony" Abby said as she saw me sit down. Abby was wearing her black skull T-shirt, miniskirt, and her tall squeaky boots. She's best friends with Kate and is a freshman too.

"Hey Abby" He said as he smiled back at her.

"Did you enjoy your new senior science class?" Tim from the other end of the table asked her.

"Loved it, it was so much fun and I didn't find it too hard neither. And Ducky was really helpful too. So how was your computer science class?"Abby asked back. Abby was really advanced in science, especially forensics, so her teacher told her to take an advancement test and she was moved to a senior science class with Ducky this semester. Tim on the other hand was good with computers so he moved into the senior computer science class too.

"It was really fun too and I learned so much. How was your classes Tony?" He turned to Tony who turned and answered jokingly.

"Unlike you McNerdy I'm normal and I don't enjoy my classes." McNerdy was one of the many nicknames Tony got for Tim, most of them starting with Mc since his last name is McGee.

"Well of course Tony doesn't like any of his classes Tim. How can he like it if he doesn't go to any of it?" Kate chuckled and everyone at the table followed. Then he heard two new chuckles join them behind me and he turned and saw Jenny walking toward us with her friend Ziva.

"Hey guys, this is Ziva David. She just moved here from Israel and is new to the school." Jenny introduced.

"Shalom." Ziva greeted and even thought Tony didn't know Hebrew he could figure out that it meant hello.

"Hi, Ziva. I'm Abby, this is two of my best friends Kate and Tim" She introduced and Kate and Tim said hi when she introduced them. Then Abby pointed to Gibbs. "This is Gibbs, his first name is Jethro but he never let anyone call him that except for Jenny and Ducky." Gibbs nodded at Ziva and she nodded back. When Ziva looked a little confused about who Ducky was, Ducky stood up and shook her hand.

"Hello Ziva. My name is Donald Mallard but please call me Ducky."

"Hello Ducky" She said as she shook his hand. "And this is?" She asked looking at me.

"Tony" Tony answered with his famous smile and surprisingly she smiled back. Tony looked at the girl standing in front of him. She wore cargo pants and jacket and a boot, just like his brother. But Ziva was a little different than Tony expected her to be. With her being Ari's half-sister and all the training Jenny told them about he expected her to have cold, unreadable eyes like her brother but hers was so warm and gentle when she looked at him.

"It's so nice to meet you Ziva, we've heard so much about you from Jenny." Abby continued with her hyperness. "You know I think we could-" Abby was cut off as Ziva fell toward the table when Chip pushed her from behind. Before she fell down to the table she quickly regained her balance and turned around to face Chip.

"Nice to see you again David." Chip said mispronouncing Ziva's last name into Day-vid.

"It is _Dah-veed_." Ziva corrected him.

"Whatever _Dah-veed_, stay out of my way and I'll forget about this morning's little incident, or you _will_ pay for what you did." Chip threatened and Gibbs stood up before Tony could.

"Leave her alone Chip."

"Gibbs, it has been only two weeks but it seems forever the last time we saw each other." Chip replied now looking at Gibbs. Nobody really dared to mess with Gibbs in the school not even Chip, he was on the football team and his stare just scared people. "Is she your friend? Don't be so sensitive you know I was just joking." Chip smirked.

"DiNozzo, Dah-veed." Chip said blankly, glaring at Tony and Ziva in turn.

"Ignore him Ziva." Jenny told her friend when she saw her frowning.

"Yeah, he's like the most arrogant jerk in the school. Trust me I know. He's just mad that he's weaker than you. Which by the way you kicked ass this morning. Don't listen to what our Toothpick Principal says you were awesome." He added, hoping to make Ziva feel better but she just shrugged.

"It does not matter."

"Why don't you sit down here and join us for lunch." Kate suggested pointing the chair beside her.

Ziva sat down between Kate and Jenny and joined the table for lunch. They ate and had conversations ranging from asking Ziva questions to get to know her better to telling Tony off for relating every single thing to a movie reference for rest of the lunch period.

Tony looked at Ziva and saw that she seemed to be enjoying the conversations even chuckling a little with everyone else. Suddenly curious he asked "Hey Ziva you're a freshman too right?"

"Yes" Ziva answered

"What class do you have in the afternoon?" Ziva looked at her schedule and answered him in order.

"History, PE, and Algebra." Tony's eye lightened at this answer.

"Really? We have the exact same classes. Maybe we could go to classes together and I'll give you a tour around the school." Tony offered and Ziva smiled.

"Thanks for the offer Tony. But Jenny already gave me a tour around the school and I thought you jumped classes."

"Skipped. The term is skipped classes and no I do not skip classes." He ignored the laughter he got from his friends and continued. "And I'm pretty positive that Jenny doesn't know the secret places around the school that I do."

"Should I believe that?" Ziva asked raising her eyebrow in a jokingly manner.

"Trust me it'll be so much fun." He answered.

"Sure I guess it would not hurt to go to classes together and what could one more tour do." Tony smiled at her answer, grad that she said yes.

Soon after the ten minute bell rang and everyone threw away their garbage, grabbed their bag and headed for the door.

"Miss David" Tony opened the door for her and smiled as he let her pass. Kate was sort of right when she said he didn't really go to his classes. He does most of the time because he doesn't want to be caught but whenever he could, he would skip, at least the classes he didn't like anyway. And today, the first day back was exactly one of those days since couple of the kids are still on vacation. But for some reason he knew that it was going to be much more fun to go to classes with Ziva than to skip today.

_

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TBC_


	3. Behind the Football Field

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS

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Ziva walked out of the girls changing room in her newly bought gym uniform consisting of a blue T-shirt, black shorts, and running shoes. She walked toward the crowd of students at end of the gym, and when she saw Tony, she sat beside him. Tony was one of Jenny's friends. Jenny's father is a marine and she met Jenny few summers ago when she spent her summer in Europe with her brother when their fathers were in business together.

The teacher walked into the gym and started the class just like every single class Ziva had today. "We have a new student joining our class this semester today." He looked at Ziva and gave her a look that implied her to introduce herself. She simply stood up and introduced herself.

"My name is Ziva Dah-veed and I moved here from Israel." Tony looked around and saw three different reactions when Ziva introduced herself. There was always those three kind of reaction that people have when there is a new kid in the school. The first group of people was curious of their new classmate, they tried to learn more about their new classmate and be nice to them. Then there is the second group of people who had no reaction because they just don't care. Then there is the third group of people who gave the hostile glare to the new kid, and in this case they were Chip's freshmen basketball teammates. Tony wasn't sure if she got hurt by or even noticed those glare or the whispers around the class gossiping about what happened that morning because if she did she sure hid it pretty well.

After the teacher took the attendance, the class went out to the field and ran five laps around the track. Ziva finished the five laps before half of the class finished their third lap and it did not really make her that tired. The teacher and the class was surprised that she ran that fast and so easily.

"Wow Ziva, you ran really fast." Tony said to her when he finished his three laps. He wasn't panting like rest of the class but he was somewhat tired too.

"I run 5 miles every morning." Ziva pointed out flatly, to which Tony raised his eyebrow to so she explained further. "It is a habit that I've had since I was 5."

Rest of the class was spent on dodge ball which was a game that Tony had to explain to Ziva but she caught up very quickly and by no time she was the best player in the class. Ten minutes before the end of the class, coach dismissed the class early to change. When Ziva came out of the changing room she saw Tony standing beside the door waiting for her.

"Hey Ziva, let's go to Algebra." Tony said when he saw her come out. Tony looked at the watch on the wall, there was five minutes left of the fifth period and he decided to himself to give Ziva a little tour of the school before going to class.

"Sure."

"Oh by the way you were amazing in dodge ball. You learned so quickly. You were really great." Tony said as he turned left when they reached main hallway. They continued to talk about all sort of things as they walked down the hall. When they reached the end of the hall, Tony said, "Ziva, I just want to tell you that-"

"We are not heading toward our math class." Ziva finished for him. "We would have turned right, not left when we left the gym if we were."

"How did you-"

"Jenny showed me a copy of the school map this morning." Ziva pointed out.

"And you memorized it? Do you have photographic memory or is it some kind of-"

"Does it matter?" Tony opened his mouth to speak but he closed it when he thought better of it. "So where _are_ you taking me."

"Well there is this place I know at back of the football field-"

"Football field? It is at the back of the school. We would never make it to class on time. If you haven't notice Tony-" Ziva frowned as she cut him off, but stopped herself when she saw Tony biting his lips trying not to burst out laughing. "What?"

"I never said we were going to the football field _now._ And think about it, first of all we won't make it to class like you said. Second of all it's snowing outside, we'll freeze to death if we go there now without a jacket. And ... well that's all I got for now." Tony looked at Ziva to see what she was thinking but he couldn't read her expression so he decided to finish the sentence he never got to finish. "I was saying I know this place behind the football field that is pretty nice. I just wanted to tell you that if you ever wanted a tour just tell me and I'll show you. In the meantime, I brought you here because it started snowing and it gives the best view from the staircase window here. Because from what I've heard at least, the people who even remember seeing snow in Tel Aviv is like probably in a wheelchair by now. So..."

"It is beautiful." Tony was surprised when he found her sitting at the staircase window half a floor above him.

He climbed the stairs to sat beside her. "Well you're probably the only person who thinks that around here. By now most people here are sick and tired of those little flakes that we have to help our parents shovel off our driveway every time it falls." Tony replied.

The fifth period's finish bell rang and they headed for their last class. When the final bell of the day rang, Ziva and Tony walked out of their math class together.

"See you tommorow Ziva." Tony said as he headed for his locker which was upstairs. Then he turned around to say, "Ziva, you have my cell number right?" Ziva nodded and he continued. "Whenever you want to have your tour of the football field just call me, k?"

"Yeah. Bye Tony" Ziva replied back.

----------------------

Ziva looked at her watch as she approached the street where her new home was. It was already five o'clock. After one hour of detention for hitting Chip and his friends, she's finally home but she knew the trouble did not end there. Her father was definitely going to ask her about being an hour late and she knew nobody could ever lie to him. Maybe the school had already called home about the fight in the first place. Either way she was in a lot of trouble. She grabbed her keys out of her bag and opened the door. When she opened the door she saw her father sitting at his work desk in the sun room.

She closed the door quietly and walked cautiously trying not to make a noise toward the stairs but before she could go up stairs, her father shouted. "Ziva!" She sighed as she turned around and walked to the sun room where he was sitting. "Why have I heard that you had gotten into a fight with few boys at the school?"

Ziva looked into her father's eyes and she knew he was furious. It wasn't really her fault but she knew better than to argue with her father when he's furious. "I sm sorry, Papa."

Eli David slammed his fist on his desk as he stood up and walked up to his daughter. Ziva winced as her father grabbed her arm and slammed her against the wall hard. She bit her lips as she tried to not to yelp when her father squeezed her arm tighter, since that would make him even more mad.

"It was not Ziva's fault, papa." Ari said as he came down the stairs. "Charles tried to prank her first."

Eli David glared at his son for a minute before snapping back, "Go back to your room Ari, this is none of your business." Then he turned back to his daughter and started yelling, "This is not a joke, Ziva. Naval Hills High is one of the largest and best school in DC both academically and athletically. Do you have any idea how much effort I have put in to make sure that you and Ari can attend this school? You will not jeopardize it by getting into fights with boys and I do not care what they did or did not do. I do not want to hear any more trouble of you, do you understand?"

Ziva held her father's gaze for a minute before answering, "Yes papa."

As soon as her father released his grip, Ziva walked toward the front door, grabbed her jacket and went outside. She felt her arm stiffen when she stretched her arm to put on her jacket. It was probably going to bruise for a couple of days but it did not really bother her. Since the first time her father let her join him and Ari during their morning run and started her training when she was 5 years old, she got a lot of bruises and cuts from it and besides whenever Ziva and her siblings pissed off their father, a bruise always ended up on some part of their body. So it was neither surprising nor unexpected. Her father was not really abusive, he was just strict and have some anger management problems, but she knew that staying under the same roof as him when she pissed him off was definitely not an option.

She walked down the street as she tried to choose where she should spend rest of the evening, but when it was the beginning of February and snow was covering half the city there was not much to choose from. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. She got out her cell phone and dialed the phone number on the paper.

_"Hello?" _The boy answered on the other side of the phone.

"Hi Tony, I hope I am not interrupting anything."

_"Ziva, hi. Uh,no,no I'm free. So, what's up?"_

"Well, I was wondering if that offer about the tour is still good."

_

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TBC and please review._


	4. Dusk

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS

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Ziva heard footsteps behind her as she sat on the bleachers in her school's football field. She listened carefully to where the footsteps were coming from. The footsteps stopped after a minute and he or she placed something on the ground before a hand lightly tapped her shoulders. As soon as the fingers touched her she grabbed the wrist, stood up immediately and twisted the arm while pinning the guy down to the ground.

"Ahh!" The guy screamed as he was forced down to the ground. "Ziva, Ziva, it's me Tony" He said half talking, half squirming. And with that Ziva immediately released her grip.

"Tony, I am so sorry." Ziva apologised as she got off Tony's back. "You should not have scared me like that."

"I scared _you?_" Tony asked. "I mean I just wanted to surprise you but... oh god" He said as he rolled his shoulders.

"I am so sorry. It was a reflexive instinct, you call it?" Tony chucked at her mistake.

"It's instinctive reflex." Tony corrected her. "And its okay, I'm fine. You don't need to apologize; I mean you're right I shouldn't have sneaked up on you like that. I should have listened to Nick in 'Men of War', which wasn't the greatest movie but had some nice action here and there-" Ziva rolled her eyes as Tony started with his movie reference.

"Tony."

"Oh right. Eh... just one sec." He said and he went over to the bleachers and grabbed his backpack and two cups of drinks. "Espresso?" He offered one of the cups to Ziva.

"Thank you, Tony." She preferred black coffee over espresso, especially overly sweetened one like this one but she smiled anyway when she took a sip.

"Come on Ziva!" Tony said enthusiastically as he stood up. He grabbed Ziva's hand, pulled her up and ran towards a small trail at corner of the field. "If we just walked through this trail, we would be on the top of a hill which is the place I have been telling you about. " He said as he pointed toward the trail in front of them. They continued having their conversation as they climbed the tree-covered hills.

As they reached the other end of the trail, Tony dragged Ziva to the highest point of the hill. She turned to see that below them was a beautiful view of the city. The sun was starting to set as they watched and all the buildings and busy traffic of the city looked really beautiful from the top of the little hill. "Wow, it is really beautiful." Ziva commented after a while.

"It's better with Christmas lights but it'll do for now. My friends and I used to play in the park down there when we were little." He pointed toward a park under the little hill.

They sat down on the edge of the small hill. Tony reached into his backpack and grabbed two paper bags out. He offered one of the bags to Ziva. "Dinner? It's from the best BBQ in town."

"Dinner?" Ziva was confused as she grabbed the bag.

"Well you know it six right now and unless you eat dinner at five in Israel I would say that you didn't have dinner before you came here. So I just grabbed something before I came here. "

"Oh thanks.' Ziva opened the bag and looked at what was inside. "Hamburgers?"

"Well, I know it's not exactly the perfect dinner but that was the only place around my house that I can actually afford. And the meat, it's not beef, it's lamb. It's odd but it tastes really good. They make the best BBQ sauce around here. The line was long but it's really worth it. It's called the best BBQ in town for a reason."

"Interesting" Ziva raised her eyebrows as she took a bite. "It is good. Although I would not say it is healthy." _Or kosher, _she added to herself.

"Half of the American foods aren't healthy Ziva. Anyway, what made you want to come here _now_? I mean it does have nice view right now but you didn't know we were coming here and it's going to get dark soon."

"I just had some free time tonight." She shrugged her shoulders. "So what about you? Your parents are fine with you eating dinner out here?"

"Eh. My dad's probably not home yet." He shrugged.

"What about your mother?"

"My mom died few years ago. And my ex-step-mom moved out when she divorced with my dad."

"Oh... I am sorry"

"It's okay. I'm already over with the 'sensitive' stage. So what do your parents do Ziva?" Tony asked.

"My mother lives with my younger sister, Tali in Tel Aviv. My father is... the Deputy Director of Mossad." Ziva said hesitantly.

"Deputy Director of Mossad? Wow." Tony raised his eyebrows as Ziva answered his question. For the next few minutes they were both quite. Nobody said anything in the awkward silence until Tony broke the silence by talking about movies again.

"I think I saw this in a movie once except that the ending is sort of different since it's like a roman-"

"Tony" Ziva cut him off looking annoyed but was actually grad that he was at least saying something.

"Sorry. But you know it is such a cliché of romantic scenes to be located somewhere-." Tony knew better than to talk about movies again but that was all he got for a conversation at that point.

"I do not know that since I do not watch movies."

"You don't watch movies?" Tony was surprised.

"No. And I do not watch television either."

"Wh... what? How could you live without TV?" Tony was now really surprised.

"Well I never said I did not_ have _a TV, I just have never turned it on. Actually I do not think it has been used since it was brought into my house... except for once when my father watched news on it."

"If you don't watch TV what do you do in your free time then?" Tony asked

"I like reading." Ziva answered, to which Tony started laughing at.

"Reading? Really?"

"Why do you not read here?"

"Well _I_ never read anything outside of school except for my magazines maybe."

"Yes, your 'magazine collections'" Ziva smirked. "And I just do not see the point in watching TV."

"Well trust me it's probably more fun than _reading_." Tony replied. "Although there is just one more thing." Tony grinned. Ziva narrowed her eyes and just when she let her guard down for a second, a snowball ended up hitting her arm.

"You did _not_ just do that."

"But I did. What ya going to do about that, Zee-vah?" Tony teased Ziva.

Ziva smirked and grabbed a handful of snow and threw it at Tony. The two teenagers started to play in the snow throwing snowballs at each other. Before they knew it, it was already dusk.

"It's already 0630. Time flees when you are having fun."

"Time flies." Tony corrected her.

Ziva threw her hands in the air. "English is so much more complicated than any of the other languages I speak."

Ziva started to cough when they walked towards Tony's backpack. "You okay Ziva?" Tony asked. "You know I usually love it when girls where _less_ clothes, but uh, if you stay out here longer in _that_ jacket you're going to freeze to death." Tony commented as he for the first time realizing that Ziva was only wearing a thin jacket on top of her shirt. It wasn't so cold during the day but it is an evening in Febuary so it was probably not the most appropriate clothing. "Here" Tony said as he offered his winter jacket as he took them down.

"Now _you _will freeze to death. I am fine Tony it is really not that cold." Ziva tried to convince Tony but she ended up coughing more when she finished.

"I'm wearing a hoodie." Tony pointed out. When Ziva still didn't accept his offer, he put his jacket around Ziva anyway and pulled her close to him. Then in his head he started to think about all the movie scenes this reminded him off. But he shook the thought away to try and focus on what's happening and he swallowed hard when he realized how dangerously close his face has gotten to Ziva's. He looked at the girl standing so close in front of him, she was beautiful, strong, and unlike any other girls he'd ever known in his life. Her eyes sparkled like shining stars. _Come on_, he thought to himself_, that's all you got_? It's like the corniest line ever, although he actually meant it this time when in fact he never really meant half of the compliment he gave to his ex-girlfriends, even Jeanne.

They stayed quiet and looked each other in the eyes for several minutes but to them it seemed like a lifetime. Usually when a boy got too close to Ziva, he would be on the ground by now but this time she did not move. _How could you let your guard down like this around Tony when you had known him for like less than 12 hours_, she reminded herself. Actually not only had she completely let her guard down around him she also had this feeling inside her that made her feel safe and warm around him. _That is ridiculous_, she told herself, _you are just finding excuses_, _you do not even know him._

When the wind blew and she shuddered, Tony pulled her even closer. They started to lean toward each other but this time Ziva cleared her throat. "I...uh...we should probably go back. It is already dark."

"Yeah." Tony agreed as he let go of Ziva. They walked through the little trail carefully because there were no light, but when they got close to the school they relaxed.

"So Tony, I will see you tomorrow at school?" When Tony raised his eyebrows Ziva asked, "You drove here so your car is in the parking, no?"

"Drive? I...but...I'm fifteen, I can't drive when they don't give me a licence." Tony answered the unexpected question.

"Right." Ziva said in realization.

"Wait Ziva, do you know how to drive?"

Ziva chuckled and gave Tony big grin. "Do you _really_ want to know?" Ziva asked raising her eyebrow in amusement.

"Maybe not." Ziva gave Tony a dark chuckle. "Where do you live? I'll walk you home."

"It is your opposite way, it is fine, you do not have to Tony."

"No, it's okay it's not as if I have anything better to do." Tony insisted.

"No really Tony, you really do not need to. It is not even that dark yet." Tony wanted to press further but when he saw Ziva switch back to her no non-sense, unreadable expression he gave up.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow." Tony said when they got to the intersection.

"Bye Tony" Ziva said as she started to cross the street. When Tony couldn't see Ziva anymore he turned and started to head back home too.

_

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I'm not exactly happy with this chapter but I tried my best and I'm sorry if it doesn't make sense or is a little off. Anyway..._

_TBC and please review_


	5. Special Plans

Disclaimer: The usual I don't own NCIS.

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It was two weeks into the new semester. It was getting warmer and warmer each day and most of the snow on the ground has already melted. Jenny sighed as she walked through the hallway. It was almost Valentine's Day and posters promoting basically about everything was up all around the school. One poster on the stair case door said '_Do you have a secret crush? Do you have a girlfriend/boyfriend? Or do you just want to give your friends a treat? Order your candy gram today at gymnasium A and send your friends and more than friends a little treat on Valentine's Day!(It will be delivered during homeroom on the Friday before Valentine's Day)'_ On the other side of the door it read _'It's Back! Valentine Photoshop is back this year! Come down to the computer lab today to change your everyday boring picture into memorable Valentine's Day card for your loved ones and friends.' _If she was dating anyone other than Jethro she'll probably consider the offers but she _is_ dating him and the last thing on earth that he like would be some candy gram and Valentine's Day cards. Now that she thought about it she doesn't think Jethro has ever celebrated or even mentioned Valentine's Day before.

Jenny walked down the stairs and went into the main hallway. When she reached the end of the hallway she pushed the door open and went outside. She turned the corner and there Gibbs was leaning against the wall with a coffee cup in his hands. As she got near him, he turned and walked towards her, giving her a light kiss.

"Hey Jethro." Jenny greeted him."Went for a coffee run?"

"Gotta do something when it's not football season." Gibbs answered. "You thirsty?" He asked as he offered his coffee.

"No thanks. I remember your taste in coffee." Gibbs laughed as he took another sip.

"Who could forget. I mean which high school kid other than Gibbs actually drinks pure black coffee?" Tony commented when he emerged from the corner of the school with Tim. Gibbs grinned at his comment.

"I do." Ziva said from behind them. Everyone except of Gibbs jumped at her sudden appearance.

"God, Ziva! How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?" Ziva put on a innocent face as Tony turned to her. It's been two whole weeks since Jenny first introduced Ziva to her friends. She has known Ziva since she was nine. They've spent quite a lot of time together after that and they've become close friends. But even then she was still not used to how she can sneak up on her every time. She was actually quite amazed that Ziva became friends with rest of the group so fast. She's became good friends with the girls and she was getting along with the boys too, _especially_ Tony. Just then Abby and Kate walked towards them from across the field.

"Hey guys!" Abby waved. "What's you guy's new homeroom number? " She asked as she took out her agenda and looked into it. "I know Ducky's, Tim's, and Kate's. But I need it from Gibbs, Jenny, Tony, and Ziva." Abby continued pointing her pen towards each one of them.

"9F" Tony answered first. "10B" Jenny followed and then Gibbs. "10G"

"What?" Ziva asked in cofusion.

"Your homeroom number. You know with the grade and a letter." Tim explained.

"No I know that. It's 9B, but why do you need to know that?" Ziva asked.

"Oh right you don't know." Kate started. "See Abby has this 'habit' of uh buying all of us candy gram every time there is one in the school. Haven't you seen all the posters around the school?"

"What's a candy gram?" Ziva asked.

Tony shook his head answered her. "It's a bag of candies and other treats."

"Well then why do you call it candy _gram_."

"I... I don't know." Tony answered helplessly. "Anyway you just buy them for your friends on special occasions."

"You know I never really understood why you buy Valentine's Day candy grams Abby. I mean you don't even like Valentine's Day." Tim said.

"Timmy! I love Valentine's Day. It's so cute. I just think all the pink stuff is unnecessary." Abby said.

"How can can you like Valentine's Day and hate pink? I mean everything about Valentine's Day is pink."

"That's not true Timmy. Just because I wear black on Valentine's Day doesn't mean I'm anti-valentine." Abby fired back.

As Abby and Tim continued to bicker, others started to talk about their Valentine's Day plans. Then Kate turned to Ziva. "Wait, do you celebrate Valentine's Day in Israel?" Kate looked at Ziva's star of David necklace and continued. "If it's not in your religion, you don't have to celebrate it with us. We don't have to talk about Valentine's Day we could change the subject." Then she turned to Abby. "Maybe you shouldn't send Ziva candy grams."

Ziva, who was focused on Abby and Tim's bickering, was surprised by Kate's sudden question. "No, no, it's fine. I believe a lot of Jewish people celebrate Valentine's Day here. And besides I'm not that observant, I don't realy care. I am actually interested in your American traditions." Ziva told Kate, and it was the truth. She haven't even thought about it herself before Kate brought it up. "But thank you for your concern Kate." She smiled at Kate.

Afterwards, they continued on with their conversations. Abby and Tim started to talk about some science stuff that others did not understand, Ducky was telling Ziva his long stories that others was bored hearing of, Tony was starting to tease Kate about how she should send her secret crush a valentine, and Jenny herself was planning a date with Gibbs on Valentines Day, which surprisingly for her, he agreed to go on. Then Fornell and Sacks came out the back door of the school. "Hello Tobias" Gibbs said to him when he saw him.

"Hello Jethro. Enjoying your lunch?" Fornell asked. When he saw Ziva he added, "Ziva, I see you have joined the cowboys." Ziva raised an eyebrow but stayed quite.

"Hi _Slacks_." Tony smirked at the boy behind Fornell. "So what brings you out here Fornell?"

"Sacks. It's Ron or Sacks!" Ron Sacks yelled at Tony. "And we're doing some work for the Student Council. Work, I know that's a concept you don't understand DiNozzo but some of us do."

"Whatever _Slacks_, why don't you go back to your little 'kiddy patrol' and leave us alone."

"You know it's been two weeks since school started. I'm surprised you haven't got yourself into trouble yet DiNozzo." Ron smirked back at him. "If I don't know you I would think that you changed but then again I _do_ know you so I know you've been up to no good. It's just a matter of time before you get yourself ended up in police station and have your Daddy clean up after you again."

Tony was now furious. "I don't damn need his help for anything!" Tony spat. As he was about to lunge himself at Sacks, Ducky held out an arm in front of him.

"Anthony." Ducky said as he led Tony away from the place trying to calm him down.

"Ron" Fornell warned Sacks and whispered to his ears. "Don't step over the line, these guys aren't to be messed with."

"What's wrong with you Ron. You know Tony was innocent." Abby yelled at Sacks.

"The police _and _your father cleared him remember?" Tim added.

"Listen _Sacks_," Gibbs stepped in when Sacks still doesn't back down. "Back off. I don't damn want to see you bothering Tony again, got it?" Gibbs glared at him.

Sacks didn't reply but he left with Fornell after a minute. "What's wrong with him." Ziva asked.

"Two years ago, there was this fight in our neighborhood and a guy was beaten unconscious. Ron's dad is a cop and he told his dad that Tony was in the fight, but the police cleared him." Kate answered. "Don't know how Tony pissed him off but he's not letting that go even though Tony's innocent."

"Tony doesn't get along with his father?" Ziva asked her.

"Ever since his mom died, his dad's been pretty much... I guess they aren't on the best term with each other, to say the least." Kate answered hesitantly, making sure that Tony doesn't hear her.

As they walked towards where Ducky has taken Tony to, they could already hear Tony yelling. "What in the world is wrong with that guy! He's even worse than Chipper.""Chip" Kate explained to Ziva.

"You get into people's fur a lot don't you Tony?" Ziva commented.

"Hair. Ziva it's get into someone's hair."

"You Americans and your idioms." Ziva complained throwing her arms in the air. But Jenny saw Ziva smile a little and was even more surprised when she saw a little satisfaction on her friend's face. She didn't do that on purpose to make Tony feel better did she? She shook her head, no of course not, she told herself. Ziva never really showed any emotions around people and definitely not sympathy. Unless there was something going on..., but before she finished her thought, she heard Tony defend himself. "I mean I get why Chipper hates me, but I don't get what's wrong with him."

"But then again you do piss off a lot of people Tony. You could have pulled a prank on him couple years ago and forgot." Kate pointed out.

"Yeah, there's Chip and Ron. Then there's the whole junior basketball team, baseball team, student council, and well most of the teachers." Tim agreed. "And of course you can't forget about all your ex-girlfriends Tony." Tim made a face before continuing. "Now _that's_ a list I don't really want to go down."

"Ow" Tim shrieked when Abby gave him elbowed his stomach.

"You don't kick a dog when he's down, Timmy." Abby glared at Tim before turning to Tony. "Not that you're a dog Tony."

"Thank you Abby." Tony said. "At least I _have_ ex-girlfriends McGoo. Besides you think my list is bad? You haven't seen Gibb's." He checked to see that Gibbs was still across the field talking to Ducky before continuing. "I mean at least I end in good terms with some of my flings. But Gibbs? I mean, his second ex, what's her name again? Oh yeah, Diane, she practically tried to split his skull with a nine iron. Now _that's_ something. Oh and do you remember that creepy mysterious redhead. I mean what's with that? We never knew who she was and we never saw her again after Gibbs stopped dating her."

"Why are you so sure that Gibbs was dating her Tony?" Tim asked.

"Uh I don't know Elf Lord. Maybe because she's a redhead?" Tony said sarcastically.

"Jethro does have a thing redheads." Jenny added.

"But still-" Tim was cut off by the bell.

"Hey, you want to go now Jenny?" Gibbs turned towards her and Jenny followed him towards the doors. Right before he went inside he called out."By the way Tony, it was a seven iron, not nine."

Tony's eyes widened, and he froze instantly. He was sure this time that Gibbs was out of ear shot. But apparently he still heard him. Everybody else burst out laughing and all headed for the doors for their afternoon classes. Tony sighed as he went inside. He couldn't wait till Saturday, not only was it the weekend, but it was Valentine's Day. Normally he absolutely hated the occasion but this year he had something planned and he just couldn't wait.

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_sorry for the gap between updates but writing one chapter and posting one, which is what I have been doing, is the worst idea ever. So I had to get some extra chapters done before I could post this one. And tell me if some of these people are out of character but then again they are in high school and the age difference completely off too so... Anyway..._

TBC and please review

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	6. The Driving Issue

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or anything related to it.

_I'm so so sorry for the long wait for the update. I was on a vacation for 2 weeks and I left this at the home computer. but when I got back I found out I saved it into a random folder I now can't find so I had to rewrite this again. This won't happen again since school starting and there won't be time for vacation anymore. Anyway sorry for the wait and here's the next chap._

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Ziva groaned in annoyance as the doorbell rang again for the third time. "Why does these salesman never give up?" She grumbled as she put down the gun she was cleaning. Seeing that her father was still occupying the phone line in his office, she stood and walked towards the front door.

"Look, I don't know what you're trying to sell but you better get off of this property before I..." Ziva started as she opened the door but trailed off as she looked up and saw a familiar face. A boy slightly taller than her stood in front of the door with one hand behind his back.

Ziva's eye widened in shock as the brown haired boy pulled a rose from his back. "Happy Valentine's Day Ziva!" He exclaimed in excitement.

"Tony! What are you doing here?"

Tony opened his mouth to answer her question but before he could get anything out, a deep voice interrupted him from inside the house. "Ziva who are you talking to at the door?"

Ziva turned around to face her father, standing in front of his office door and opened her mouth immediately trying to find something to say. "Nobody, Papa. Ju...just a friend from school." Damn it, she thought to herself,why was she stuttering? It is not as if she was lying ,Tony was just a friend, was he not? Then why was her heart pounding so hard right now? She continued have a self conversation as her father nodded and walked back into his office. When she finally realized that Tony was standing in front of the door, she stepped out the house and closed the door. "What are you doing here Tony?" She asked again.

"Well, I was wondering if you'd like to hang out with us today, go catch a movie or something. If you don't mind that is."

"Us?"

"Yeah, you know, me, Tim, Abby, Kate, Gibbs, Jenny, and Ducky." Tony gestured towards the two cars across the street that Ziva cursed herself for not noticing before." We probably should have called first, and we did try, but you cell phone was off and your home phone was always busy. You know I get it if you already have plans" Tony started to blabber out quickly and before he could go any further, Ziva raised her hands to stop him.

"I don't and a movie sounds nice. I'll just go and ask my father, so if you don't mind to wait a little." She said to him as she went inside the house. After ten minutes of pacing around Tony finally relaxed as he saw Ziva come out of the front door. Apparently she took the some of the ten minutes changing as now she was wearing tight white shirt under her black coat, and a jeans instead of cargo pants she wore ten minutes earlier.

Ziva cleared her throat as Tony continued to stare at her. "Is something wrong Tony? It is something with my clothes?"

"No, no, you look fine. Actually you look great." Tony answered snapping his head away, suddenly uncomfortable under Ziva's gaze. When he saw that Ziva was still looking at him expecting an answer he continued awkwardly. "Well, it's just that I never actually thought you owned anything other than your cargo pants and shirts."

Ziva laughed at his discomfort. "What you thought I even slept in those?" She commented sarcastically.

"Well, you being the crazy Israeli ninja chick and all I didn't think you'd actually sleep." Ziva rolled her eyes at Tony as he continued to make jokes as they crossed to the street where a yellow car and a blue Ford Fusion. was parked.

When they were half way across the street Tony turned to Ziva and asked, "You dad said yes right?"

Ziva rolled her eyes again and sarcastically remarked. "No, he said no and I just felt like changing and following you across the street."

Tony gave her a mock offended expression before saying, "We'll be riding with Tim in Ducky's car while the others ride with Gibbs." He gestured towards Ducky's blue Fusion.

"Hello Ducky, Tim" Ziva greeted them as they got into the car.

"Good morning Ziva, I'm grad that you could come" Ducky said as he started his car. Before he could step on the accelerator, the yellow car behind them sped away from them making a sharp right turn at end of the street. "My goodness, I wonder how Jethro even got his license so quickly with his driving skills."

"Knowing Gibbs, he probably gave his examiner his stare and scared the crap out of him and forced the poor guy to pass him." Tony snorted.

"Oh my god! What is he going at? He's probably more than 20 miles over the speed limit." Tim commented as they tried to catch up to the yellow car that was now squeaking through the DC traffic, earning another horn as it cut in front of another car way too close.

"I've done better. I could go at least another 10 miles faster." When three sets of shocked eyes turned on her she continued. "What? I thought we were talking about how fast he could drive? Is driving fast not a good thing in America?"

"And it is in Israel?" Tony asked, trying to be sarcastic but clearing failing.

"Well, as my father said, it is a good way to avoid bombs and ambushes." She shrugged.

"Your father taught you drive like _that_? Wait, your father_ let you_ _drive_?" Tim asked shockingly.

"No, but I taught myself in one of his cars. It's really not that hard, I could handle it in the street by the time I was twelve." Ziva said still confused as to why they were all shocked.

Tim opened and closed his mouth several times like a fish.

"Is there something wrong Tim?" Ziva asked.

"I think McFish over there is trying to ask you what we all want to ask you. What... you know what never mind I probably don't want to know the answer."

"Well, Ziva my dear, unfortunately you'll have to wait another two years to be able to drive here in America. But considering there's already Jethro on the road may be that is a good thing." Ducky told Ziva.

Ziva smiled at Ducky before turning to Tony beside her and asking, "How did you find where my house was Tony? I do not believe I have told you before."

"Well you'll have to thank McGenius over here, 'cause he hacked into the school system and found us an adress."

"Ziva, I swear I didn't mean to invade you privacy-" Tim started to defend himself, but was cut off by Tony.

"Shut up McHacker. Don't pretend to be McInnocent, McGuilty, it was was one of _your_ McIdeas after all"

"I'm sorry Ziva, I-"

"I do not mind Tim"

"We're here" Ducky announced after another 5 minutes as they pulled into the mall parking lot.

When they got out of the car they were met by an impatient Gibbs. "What took you guys so long?"

"Well Jethro, I believe Ducky was actually following streetlights, and _not_ changing lines every 10 seconds." Jenny commented behind him.

"Yeah Gibbs, how did you even get your license?" Kate complained as she walked towards the crowd with Abby, both looking a little bit sick.

"I am _never ever_ going to ride with you again Gibbs. You'd think someone would be careful more with a car that he built himself but, god how did we not get into an accident?" Gibbs smirked at Abby's horrified expression.

"Well since the movie theater won't open for another hour, why don't we shop around first." Kate suggested.

"Yeah sure, any particular place in mind?" Jenny asked as they got inside the mall.

"Starbucks. I could use another cup of coffee." Gibbs suggested which everyone rolled their eyes at.

"Of course you do." Jenny said as Gibbs wrapped his arm around her waist.

After everyone got a cup of coffee they headed towards the movie theater. After another half an hour spent on arguing about which movie to see, Pink Panther 2 won by majority. Abby and Kate wanted to watch it while Tony wanted to see Friday the 13th. And since Gibbs and Ziva both didn't really care what they saw, Ducky being sincere and offering others to make the choice, and Jenny got tired of the argument and decided she didn't care anymore, Abby and Kate won.

After 90 some minuets of movie, the group walked out of theater.

"This is all your fault Kate, if you actually listened to me and watched Friday the 13th, we would never have had to sit there watch the stupid predicable movie for nearly 2 hours." Tony complained as they got out.

Kate rolled her eyes at him. "The horror movie is even more meaningless than the comedy. You only like the horror because you get to hit on some stupid girls when they get scared during the movie."

"You know what I think? I think you're just sour because you have to admit the movie was boring."

"No it wasn't Tony. You were laughing yourself half of the time. You only started to complain when the credits started to roll. It's comedy, it's supposed to be stupid and predictable. Besides we're only 14, we couldn't have gotten into the movie anyway."

"Yeah we could have!' Tony countered. "They don't care that much as long as we pay. Besides Ducky's going to go to college in a few months, and does Gibbs _look_ like a high school kid, and who would ever dare to argue against Ziva. She could have killed those guards with a paper clip if something went wrong."

"You're impossible." Kate huffed and went over to where Abby and Jenny were talking.

"It was still the worst of the 11 Pink Panther movies!" Tony yelled at Kate.

"Why would they call it The Pink Panther _2_ if it is the 11th movie?" Ziva asked behind him making him jump a little which in turn made her laugh.

"You need to walk louder. Anyway I don't know, but what I do know is that the first original was definitely a a good comedy. The 1963 original Pink Panther starring David Niven,Peter Sellers, and Robert Wagner."

"Tony..." Ziva started but Tony either too lost in his rambling that he didn't notice or he didn't care.

"David Niven was great but Peter Sellers was genius. Except for the 'Inspector Clouseau' he wasn't in he made the comedy popular. He and his-" Tony stopped talking to rub the back of his head in protection.

"Shut up Tony. Now listen because I'm not going to repeat it _again_, so Abby and Kate is going with Tim and Ducky to the library so you're stuck with me. Now would you like me to drop you off at your house?"

"No that's okay, I don't wanna go home just yet. Where are you and Jenny going?"

"Jethro and I are going to have dinner at a restaurant later and we're going to be at my house until then. Where are you going if you don't go home?"

"It's early, I'll just call some guys to see if they want to play a game or two. Just drop me off at the park near Ziva's place since you're going to drop her off." Tony responded.

"Hey Ziva, you don't have to go home just yet right?"

"No, Jen. Why?"

"Well since it's close to your home why don't you spend some time with Tony at the park. It's a big park and I bet if he show you around you can find a better route for your morning run than running around the block like you do now." Jenny suggested.

"Um... well I guess I have time. Would you mind if I came along Tony?"

"Why would I ever mind. We could do all sort of stuff, maybe we make a snowman or maybe-" He suddenly stopped himself when he realized that he was think out loud. "Sorry." He blushed at the three others who was all raising an eyebrow at him.

"Guess I'll drop you off at the park then." Gibbs said as he pulled out his keys but it fell to the ground when he tried to dodge a boy running in the parking lot.

Ziva grabbed before it touched to the ground. "Nice car, you really put its engine to its use but I'd say you could go another 10 miles faster if you really want the speed."

"Okay, _you _don't need to be giving him anymore advice on his driving. I could almost swear you were taught by the same teacher. Of course you shouldn't even be driving yet." Jenny said to Ziva, while she grabbed the keys.

"You've driven with her?" Tony asked in curiosity.

"Ari left the car at the camp when he left early and we had to get it out of there somehow. And since Jen had absolutely no clue as to what to do I took the liberty of driving." Ziva answered.

"And I'm not making that mistake again. Even I would have gotten less honked. You even make Gibbs car ride a heaven." Jenny added.

They got into the car and the car jolted forward much too quickly for Tony's comfort. Even though she was used to it by now Jenny still looked a little worried, while Ziva looked as if it was just another car ride. Tony grabbed the little handle above the door for his life as Gibbs made a wide left turn. Tony though to him self how bad would Ziva's driving have to be if this was considered heaven.

_

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The next chapter will up by probably around Wednesday, but definitely no later than Friday. Unlike this one the next one will actually be important to the plot so...  
_

_TBC and please review  
_


	7. Fireworks

Disclaimer: I don't and will probably never own NCIS or any part of it

_This one and next one which will be up soon used to be one chapter but it got too long so I separated it so this is my Valentine's Day Couple part 1 _

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"Jethro, where are we going?" Jenny asked beside him in the passenger seat as he drove quickly through the Saturday traffic.

"Dinner."

"I know _that_ Jethro." Jenny glared at him. "I meant where are we going? Weren't we going to have a movie and dinner."

"We just saw a movie less than an hour ago Jenny, you can't be honestly tell me you want to see another one. Even Tony isn't that obsessed." Gibbs said as he turned to look at Jenny.

"Watch the road!" Jenny yelled as they almost went over the curbside as Gibbs put all his attention on looking at her. She gave a big sigh as they went back on track, they were going at a crazy speed and making sharp turns again but at least she knew that he was paying attention to the road. "You haven't even gotten your license for a month yet, you should be more careful!"

"Uh-huh" Jenny groaned at his uncaring response.

"Now where are you taking me if we're not going to the movies. It's only five, it's not time for dinner yet." When Gibbs continued to drive forward without the intention of answering her she decided to change tactics and mock him. "You aren't dragging me out of the city for a romantic date under the shining stars are you?"

"Now you're being ridiculous, Jen. Relax, I would never resolve to that kind of thing, that's Tony's expertise. Although you got one thing right, we're definitely getting out of the city."

-------------------------

Gibbs hit the brake pedal hard as car swirled into the driveway of an old wooden house beside a forest. Still refusing to tell Jenny where they are going, or now where they are, he turned the engine off and stepped off the car. As he shut the driver's side door, a tall young man wearing a western suit and a cowboy boots jumped down the wooden deck and walked towards Gibbs. He took one last puff of his cigarette and threw it on the ground, squishing it with the tip of his boots.

"Probie! It's been a while, what brings you down here today?" The dark brown haired young man said as he patted his shoulders.

"Probie?" Jenny asked, her voice still rough from the thirty minutes of silent ride since they left the city border.

"Since when did you become so melodramatic, dragging girls down here."

Gibbs ignored his comment and turned to Jenny. "Jen this is Mike, an old friend." Then he turned back to Mike. "Mike this is Jen, my girlfriend."

"Jenny Shepard." Jenny introduced herself as she held out her hands. Mike slightly raised his eyebrows, considered for a moment and shook it.

"Mike Franks. Former Marine."

"Former Marine." Jenny stated more than asked.

"Former Staff Sergeant, honorably discharged last year." Gibbs answered for Mike.

"So what brings you and Jenny down here?" Mike asked again, this time pausing slightly before adding Jenny's name.

"Can I not just visit an old friend Mike?" Gibbs responded as he locked his car door.

"If that was coming out of anybody else other than you Probie, I'd buy it but you..." Mike didn't bother to finish as he shook his head.

"You still have the boat in the basement Mike?"

"'Course I do, I can't get that junk of yours out of the basement no matter what I try."

Gibbs smiled at Mike's answer. "Can I borrow your basement for the night Mike?"

"Whatever Probie, I'll just go back to the lake, I never go down there anyway, use it however you want but keep the voices down though. Just because I don't have neighbors doesn't mean there aren't police cars patrolling and I don't want them to think I'm killing someone here if you know what I mean." Mike laughed as Gibbs narrowed his eyes at him giving him the stare. "Have fun, Probie." Mike said again as he left for the lake.

"What's in the basement?" Jenny asked a lot less enthused and a lot more harsher than she intended. But it wasn't her fault she thought herself, she was still ticked off from Mike's comments, not to mention that neither him nor Jethro has answered her question of what's with 'Probie'.

"Just follow me." Jenny immediately softened as Gibbs used his gentle tone, something that in the 16 years that Jenny had known him, she knew he didn't use often. As they went down the stairs Jenny could see a big dark figure of something. She couldn't be exactly sure of what it was in the dark but it somewhat looked like a bench? No a boat. Jenny found out that she was right as Gibbs turned on the light in the basement.

"Did you make this Jethro?" Jenny asked and when she saw the sanding tools sitting at the desk at the far corner she added. "By hand?"

"I used to come down here every weekend when Mike was deployed to help him clean and keep his house and after I was done I started building a boat here." Gibbs explained. Jenny looked at him and suddenly he wasn't strong tough guy everyone saw him as anymore, he was sitting there with his drink which she sincerely hoped wasn't bourbon liked the one her father kept in her house, spilling his guts, to her. She walked around the boat and froze as she saw five letters neatly printed across the boat, it was nothing other than her name.

"Jenny." She whispered without turning to see that Gibbs was now standing right behind her.

"Jenny." Gibbs whispered directly into her ears. "Happy Valentine's Day."

She turned and faced Gibbs who was staring intensely at her, not his usual glare, but a passionate one. She stood on tippy-toe and leaned in to kiss him. Her hands were now playing with his hair and he wrapped her tightly around her waist. They broke apart after several minutes of their tongues making a liaison. Jenny looked Gibbs in the eye and said. "Happy Valentine's Day, Jethro."

---------------------------

Gibbs stood up from his chair and gathered the dishes together as the three of them finished dinner. After a disastrous fail at attempting to make dinner for three, Jenny offered to take over and make the dinner, and Gibbs had to admit that her dinner was so much better. Even Mike complimented, well to be quoting exactly, _"This is the most decent meal I've had in years."_ , but for Mike it was a compliment that he wasn't likely to give to just about anyone.

"Leave it there Probie, I wash once a week." Mike said as Gibbs was about to start the water at the sink.

Gibbs pretended that he did not notice Jenny's expression of shock and disgust, and replied. "Least I can do Mike."

"Fine with me, save me the trouble of doing it myself." He muttered as he grabbed his bourbon bottle and went outside.

As Mike left Jenny grabbed rest of the dishes and put it down in the sink. "I'll help." She offered but when Gibbs saw her eyed a little worriedly at the sink where several other dishes that wasn't on the table a minute before, he smirked and said "I'll wash, you dry."

Jenny exhaled in relief as Gibbs made the offer. After five minutes, she asked him. "What do you think Tony and Ziva is doing right now?"

Gibbs shook his head and chuckled. "It is none of our business _and_ you should not have forced them to go to the stupid park Jen."

"Please Gibbs do you really think Tony called us yesterday and asked to hang out today because 'it's Valentines day and I think it's important to bond with each other and a movie sounds nice'? It's more Ziva than us really" Jenny asked.

"No, but it's still none of our business even _if_ it was true. Besides since when did you become such a gossip?" Gibbs asked raising an eyebrow which Jenny immediately frowned to.

"I'm not. Look, for over the ten years that we've know him, he's been hitting on girls all the time. Say a sweet line, a gentle kiss, and maybe a cheap gift, but he's never actually used his brains and planned something for anyone really. With his father being a bastard, he's done anything he could to stay out of that house and honestly I think this is the first time he's cared for a girl so deeply."

"Yes you are the love expert Jenny." Gibbs said in amusement as he shook his head and continued with washing his dishes.

When they finished the dishes Gibbs told Jenny that he has secretly took one of the fireworks package his father has ordered for the New Years Celebration several months back and hid it in the basement and they could use it today. Even though Jenny wasn't too keen on breaking the rules, which her father and his father created together when they started dating, that specifically said no dangerous things, she liked the idea so she agreed. She huffed internally to think back about how playing with Gibbs as a kid, he always convinced her to break the rules which almost always ended up in trouble. She swore to herself every time that it was the last time but it never happened. Quite frankly recently she started to break rules without Gibbs around her too. You know when you create your own rules to twist other's rules to suite you that you have been with Gibbs for way too long, she thought to herself.

She grabbed a bottle of water and walked onto the deck and sat down on a wooden chair beside Mike. "Hello Mike." Jenny greeted him.

"Hey...Jenny. You're a lucky women, Probie does really like you." Mike said but Jenny doubt he was really serious considering the amount of bourbon he has now consumed and from a personal experience, another one with Gibbs, she knew that the thing was strong. But seeing that he was half drank she decided to ask again hopefully he'll answer this time.

"Why do you call Jethro Probie?"

Mike sat up straighter and sighed. "Guess Probie didn't tell you huh?" Jenny looked confused so he bit his lip for a moment before deciding to continue. "We met at his mother's grave several years back. He was just going from his mother's funeral, I was 18 then just enlisted, I know I don't seem like the guy who's sentimental, but I was telling the news to my parents. Probie was only 12 then, but he was close to his mother. I walked up to him and talked with him for an hour or so told him where I lived and spend every weekend of the 2 months before my deployment here. Eventually he decided that he wants to be a Marine too. And Probie just sounds much better than his name."

Jenny was overwhelmed by the load of information she has received. Anyone who has known him before his mother's death knew how much he has changed. He was so much happier, and a lot more immature but nonetheless a happy boy. But after his mother's death he changed, Jenny assumed that he missed her since he was closer to her than his father but now she knew the real reason. He found himself a dream, he wanted to serve his country and he has disciplined himself to be able to be a good Marine, to be a men his mother would be proud of. Jenny's own mother left when she was three and have always lived with her father since then so she did not feel responsible to make her proud like Jethro did.

"And I know you think I'm drunk and wasn't serious but I did mean it. Jethro really likes you, maybe even love you if you two weren't sixteen, and you're lucky to have him." Mike said surprising Jenny.

"Jethro in love. Yeah like that'll ever happen" She huffed.

"You know the boat down stairs, it's his second one. He made the first one to another women he cared deeply about."

"His mother." Jenny responded after considering for a moment as his word sank in.

"Yes. How he got that boat out I don't know but I do know that he would have to care deeply for you to replace that boat for yours." Mike explained.

Jenny nodded now knowing exactly what Mike meant. After sitting silently for several minutes Mike broke the silence. "Jenny-"

"What conversation?" Jenny said smiling as she got up.

"Good." Mike said as he took another sip of his bourbon.

"Firework's ready." Gibbs announced as the door slammed open. Jenny joined him at the front door and walked alongside them as they tried to find an open space for the little firework. Gibbs lit one of them up and after a second or so it lit off.

Jenny looked at the beautiful firework and whispered Gibbs in his ears. "This is my favorite Valentine's Day."

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_TBC and please review_


	8. The Beginning

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS

_This is the second part of Valentine's Day since I separated this and the last chapter. And now I'm separating this chapter into 2 chaps because this one got too long, well in my standard anyway because I like to keep one chapter between 1500-2500 words. So this is the part 1 of the part 2.  
_

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"I cannot believe I actually agreed to do this." Ziva said as she fell back to the ground exhausted.

"Well you did and look at where it lead us." Tony responded as he lied beside her.

"Me completely out of breath?" Ziva said as she gave Tony a look.

"Oh cheer up Ziva! Look at that cute little snowman, doesn't he look happy?" Ziva rolled her eyes at him as he piratically pouted.

"The thing will melt in less than few hours. But building it completely tired me off."

"Out, Ziva. Tired me out." Tony corrected her immediately. "Besides it's not my fault you insisted to do all the work. All I said was that I had experience building this before and I'd do the work you could decorate but you had to prove that you were capable of lifting and stacking the big snowballs by yourself. It's not as if I don't know how strong you are."

"Hey I just offered to do it because you still looked sick from last week Tony." Ziva defended herself, which was not one hundred percent lie because he did get sick last week and she was uncharacteristically really worried for him.

"Whatever you say." Tony said in defeat as he stood up, but mumbled to himself . "Crazy Israeli ninja chick."

"Heard that Tony." Ziva said now standing directly in front of him instead of on the spot that she was laying on just a second ago.

"Wha-ho-wh-I-you-theri-uh-never mind." Tony managed to stutter out.

"I think you promised to show me some running routes, yes?" Ziva asked after smirking at Tony's surprise.

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"Ziva would you please slow down." Tony panted as he tried to catch up to Ziva.

"How would I know if this is a good running route if I do not actually try it and I am running slowly." Ziva answered now stopping and turning around. Of course she was neither that naive nor stupid, so she knew that finding running routes was _not_ the intention of this trip set up by Jenny. The truth was that Ziva actually wanted test how fast Tony could run and surprisingly for her, unlike most other Americans he was very fit. _Maybe even..._

"By whose scale?" Ziva snapped back into reality when she realized Tony has caught up to her.

"Mine" Tony was ready to reply but he was way too tired so he decided instead that he'd sit down first. He sank into the bench under the tree as he walked up to it. He took a minute to catch up with his breaths, at least it was in the winter so he won't feel like he's going to boil up any second, he thought to himself.

"Do you run like that every morning?" Tony asked as he looked up to her who was standing in front of him with her arms crossed.

"It depends on who I'm running with. Ari and my father ran way faster than that most of the time."

"Damn crazy ninja chick bearing fathers." Tony said under his breath

"What?" Ziva said in confusion as somehow not very unlike Gibbs heard what wasn't meant for her to.

"Nothing I mean you're just the first girl I've met who's faster and stronger that me." When Ziva frowned he immediately realized what he have said and started to defend himself before Ziva could open her mouth or grab the paper clip in her pocket. "Not as in I think women are weak, but it's just, you know I just think it's cool." He decided he'll have to settle with that before he could say anymore stupid things, like the phrase 'it's cool'. But he couldn't get over the temptation to talk as Ziva simply shook her head and rolled her eyes at him for the God knows how many times this afternoon. "It's just no girl has ran faster than me before 'cause I'm sort of fast right, so Kate probably ran _as fast_ as me but not faster, and I think you're amazing thaa..."

Tony's voice phased out of Ziva's mind as her heartbeat started to become faster instead of slowing down after she stopped running. Ziva ordered her heart to stop pounding so hard but it did not listen to her. She tried to breath in and out slowly to calm herself but all it did was make her aware of parts of Tony's dialog, a particular part that was _not _helping her to convince herself that she did not like Tony. It was still ridiculous to her how she could care so much about a boy she has met for only two weeks but she could not help herself. And at the moment she heard Tony say the word 'I love' she needed to stop it immediately before she started spilling her what was it again, git, gat, whatever it was out. She, no longer caring what Tony said with the two words, she left it up with her instincts, trusting it. But instead of stopping Tony from talking, well it did sort of stop Tony from talking but definitely not the way she wanted this to go down:she leaned down and kissed him.

Tony stopped his blabbering as someones lips pressed lightly against his. His eyes widened as he realized who the lip belonged to. _Is Ziva kissing me? Is she kissing me? _But before he could clear his mind enough to break it apart he was completely drawn into the kiss. He pressed his lips slightly harder but still gentle against hers as he stood and pinned her against the closest tree available. After what seemed like a life time they broke apart.

"I'm sorry Tony. I did not-" Ziva started apologizing but Tony cut her off.

"Well I'm not. Not because apologizing is a sign of weakness like according to Gibbs, but I... I like you Ziva, I really do. I know it sounds crazy to say this to someone who I've met only two weeks ago but I really do." Tony stared into Ziva's eyes, at that moment nothing in the world Ziva David wanted more than to rewind the last five minutes and start over to make sure it was... it didn't matter what it was, she thought to herself, as long as it wasn't this. But when she looked into Tony's eyes she saw that she was not kidding and he really meant it. The determination in his eyes completely melted her away and four words slipped out of her mouth before she could stop it."I like you too."

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As Ziva and Tony stopped kissing to catch up with their breaths, Ziva for the first time in hours examined her surroundings. It was unusually dark for an afternoon. _It's probably getting cloudy_ ,she told herself until she turned around to see that the sun was setting. She shot up from the bench which almost made Tony crash against the bench as they were leaning on each other before. "Ziva what-"

"1806h!" Ziva screeched in shock as she opened her phone to read that it was already past 6 o'clock and there was 10 missed calls, 3 from home, and 7 from Ari's cellphone. "Damn it." She yelled very loudly causing people nearby to look at her but she did not care.

"What is it Ziva?" Tony asked now alarmed.

Ziva shut her eyes tightly as she cursed herself again. "It is Saturday, my father brings me and Ari to a nearby shooting range in the evening for practice. I was supposed to be home by four. I checked right before we..." Her face was now in the hands as she prayed that her father called to tell her that he couldn't make to the shooting range today because of business, but Ziva knew that was not going to happen because if that was the case he would not have called. She listened to all of Ari's message which all involved asking her where she was and telling to to get home, go to the shooting range fast, and the latest one telling her to _avoid_ going home. She didn't even bother to listen to her father's message, because just the thought of what it could have been made her shiver. her sighed heavily as she announced to Tony. "I should get home now." Even though Ari told her to wait, she knew that he knew her father will not calm down until she got home and would take out his anger on other people and things, probably Ari. She did not want Ari to bear with her angry father alone, especially when she was the one who was responsible for her father's faulty mood. And she did not want the one phone call he actually make once a month to her mother in Tel Aviv to consist of yelling and accusations.

As they walked towards to park exit, Tony wondered to himself what kind of relationship Ziva has with her father. Clearly the girl who was afraid of nothing and nonchalantly showing off with her skills reminding people constantly she can kill them with paper clips 18 different ways on some level feared her father. He didn't know how much but she was afraid of him alright, more than in a normal father-daughter relationship way though. What ever it was he was going to stand by her.

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_TBC and please review (tell me if you think they are out of character though) Then next one will be later today or tommorow_


	9. And The Aftermath

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS

_part 2 of part 2. The whole point of separating the chapters was to equal out the chapters but this one still ended up being 3000 words. The only reason I separated them was because sometimes people write an extra long chapter but the next one is really short and it makes me disappointed so I'm trying to equal out all the anyway I'm not going to separate this one because it's not that longer than usual and I can't find a place to separate them. But don't expect the rest of the chapters in the story to be as long as this one though, not that this is that longer._

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They walked in silence for rest of her way home, Tony has insisted that he walk her home even though she said she was fine. Even though she would never admit it out loud, she took comfort in the fact that Tony was beside her supporting her right before she had to face her father, even if he did not say anything or see the whole picture. Sure missing a family outing was not probably not a big deal with anyone. Tony probably thought that her father would be like any other father and yell at her for few minutes for not appreciating family traditions. But that was not the case, her father did not care that much about family, hell he probably could not care less about it. But what was important to him, being in IDF and Mossad his entire whole life was orders. You get orders and you follow them period. It was a lesson her father has taught her before she could even read. Everything with him involved orders, including family and _this_ to him was considered disobeying orders. Mouthing off and lying was on top of 'piss him off list' but disobeying and defying orders... well that was more than just pissing him off.

Eli David paced around his front yard waiting for his daughter's return. He was so furious he felt like his lungs was on fire causing him to breath in and out extremely fast. They were supposed to go to the shooting range for practice today _and_ today he called in some of his old friends favors and observe to see if they can get Ziva in to a summer boot camp for older youths since her skill was far beyond her age-level. _Ziva, you just _had_ to pick today to miss practice__._ Ziva loved shooting ranges since the first time he gave her a gun for her birthday present when she was seven. It was a Jericho that he taught her to shoot with which he noticed that she still uses occasionally now. It was her second favorite activity, right under combat sessions. For her to miss this, she must have had a good reason. No, Eli told himself, he specifically ordered her to leave whatever it was that she was doing and come home on the phone _three times_. You _never_ disobey orders as long as you have one breath left, that was one of his basic principals all his life and it was something that he expected his children to follow too. Ziva disobeyed his order and it does not matter what excuse she think she has, she has crossed the line this time.

He stopped thinking as he saw a couple appear at the edge of the street sidewalk. As they walked towards him, he could see it was Ziva and that boy from this morning. _Well, she certainly does not look like someone who is incapable of bringing herself to a shooting range one block away,_ he though sourly_. _He was about to yell at Ziva but stopped himself and decided to observe the two before summoning his oldest daughter. The two was talking way too low for him to hear what they were saying. But couple of minutes later they stopped talking and the boy leaned in and kissed her. Eli David drew in a deep breath between his lips ready to see his daughter push him onto the ground and use her knife to threaten cutting the precious part of his body off or something equally violent. But it never came, and in fact from his point of view Ziva seems to be returning the kiss.

On the opposite end of the street Ari walked in casually bracing himself for another round of yelling from his father demanding where Ziva was. He shook his head as he wondered what Ziva was thinking, he knew that his half-sister was extremely stubborn and defiant but even she would not pull this on their father because that would be no longer be considered being rebellious, it would be sheer stupidity. Even though he was irritated by Ziva's bold act and questioning her sanity, he was worried about his sister. Shooting range was one of her favorite things to do, well perhaps not but it was out of all the David family activities, and the access to a close shooting range was practically the only reason she agreed to move to the states. And their father has announced Tuesday evening that one of his friend would visit and see if he could get Ziva into a more challenging summer boot camp than the one she would go to along with other people her age who was all slower, weaker, and less skilled than her. Considering the fact that she had photographic memory in addition to her observant nature, she could not have forgotten that. So where was she? Not only does she know that this would piss their father off, she loved that place _and _this particular week she could show off all her skills to make her summer less boring.

But Ari's whole world halted to a stop as he got close enough to his house to see the scene that was unfolding. His father was somewhat hiding behind a tree observing two teenagers maybe a mile or two way. A boy who is Ari's height was gently kissing a girl, but that was not the surprise since Ari has noticed that many American couples kiss _very_ passionately in public so the gentle kiss was actually a nicer scene, but the surprise was that the girl was his sister. And the boy was Tony, one of Ziva's new friends at school who Ari guessed was the one at their doorstep this morning, and has he wrapped his arms around Ziva's waist. Even though he was still far away he could just feel his father giving them a furious, perhaps even homicidal, glare at them as Ziva did absolute nothing to stop him. _This cannot end well.__ Ari think! You have to stop this before you father jumps at the two with one of his weapons that he surely hide on himself somewhere._ _Ziva had to pick Tony? Tony is not only not Israeli, but is not even Jewish. _Nobody other than Tali in their family ever really followed their religion really closely, but dating Jewish men was one part of the religion their father followed. Probably more for the family reputation rather than the religion itself but it did not matter since it was not helping this situation at all_. _With no better idea coming to his mind he yelled for his father extreamely loudly.

Ziva David froze as she heard a familiar voice yelling 'Papa'. Ari, it was Ari, and her father was somewhere within his and her earshot. She stopped kissing Tony and pushed herself away. Tony who also heard what he thought was Ari's voice calling probably his father, who was also Ziva's father, had his suspicion confirmed when Ziva pulled herself away. "Is this where I should pull a Chandler?"

"What?" Ziva asked in a mixture of annoyance and amusement.

"You know Chandler in Friends when Ross saw him having sex with his sister, you know? No? I should really get you to watch more TV."

If it wasn't for the circumstances, Ziva might have laughed at Tony's comment. Only he could ever make a movie reference, or was it a TV reference, when the Deputy Director of a very intimidating international Intelligence Agency probably wanted to strangle him. "Tony we can do whatever you want later, right now just leave. Leave. And stay away."

"That serious huh?"

"Tony I am over two hours late to get home _and _my father just have witnessed you sticking your tongue down my throat, I do not think this is a good time for you to make jokes."

Tony getting the hint that nothing he said would make Ziva less nervous, scared, whatever it was that she felt, so he said a quick goodbye and left even though more than anything in the world he wanted to stay and support her. But he knew if he did that not only will it not help but would make things worse for Ziva so he gave up.

Ziva looked at her house and saw that no one was in the front yard anymore so she figured that Ari has already dragged her father into the house. She felt relieved that they could do this inside the house, not that it would be any better or anything, but at least nobody would watch them. She took a one last long breath in as if that was the last one she was going to have, not that it was far from what she was facing, and opened the door.

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She checked one last time that Ari was sleeping peacefully instead of unconscious before she went down stairs and grabbed her jacket. The fight that has started over two hours ago in the David household was anything but pretty. Ziva cursed herself for the millionth time since the fight started for forgetting her father's announcement on Tuesday. _How did you get so distracted that you did not notice that your father was eating with you and actually talking that day_.Now because of her stupid mistake, her father has driven away nearly an hour ago to deal with 'business'. Not that she minded that but what she did mind was it ended up getting Ari unconscious.

When her father threatened to ship her back to Israel, Ari stood up for her. While she stayed determined in not giving her father any satisfaction, giving absolutely no sign that anything her father had yelled at her had any effect, he being the protective caring older brother that he was and seeing that she was happier here for the past two weeks than she has ever been for the past fourteen years and despite the cold face she put on back there she really wanted to stay, he even begged her father to reconsider. But her father being much more stubborn than she was, did not care and went into his office to book a ticket. Her father was furious to the point where he did not realize Ari was following really close and slammed the door way too hard. It had hit Ari's head and face really badly and he shortly drifted into unconsciousness. When his head hit the floor it made him regain his consciousness, so by the time Ziva yelled his name in panic and her father realized what he has done and opened the door he was sitting again. but it still made Ziva feel really horrible, Ari should not have been the one to get punished, not that she was implying that it was intended, it was all her fault.

After they got an ice pack for Ari and took him upstairs into his bedroom, her father decided that he's going for business and they will discuss the issue later. But Ziva has known his father long enough to not trust that he would reconsider anything he said, in fact she was surprised that he even felt guilty enough after Ari fainted to leave rest of the fight for later. For nearly an hour she sat beside Ari's bed making sure he was feeling better and imagining all the different ways this would end and none of them had happy endings. She stopped walking as she realized she has reached her destination. She pulled out her cell phone and pressed speed dial 3.

"_For the last damn time-_" The furious voice from the other end of the phone screamed.

"Tony, it's me Ziva. I'm in front of your house right now would you mind if you could came down for a few minutes?"

"_Ziva. I,,, that...that was not intended for you_. _Anyway yeah I'll be down in one sec."_ Tony answered and Ziva shut the phone before Tony could say anything unnecessary.

"Why did you hang up on me Ziva?" Tony asked playfully as he appeared from his house.

"I have to talk to you."

"Wanna go inside and do that. I mean it's kinda cold out here and at least we can have some cocoa right, you know I never know why it's spelled 'coco-ah' but-"

"Tony." Ziva simply said but it was enough for Tony to get that she was completely serious. "I just want to talk to you about this afternoon."

"Why are you frowning Ziva. Didn't you enjoy it as much as I did? Wait, what happened after I left? Is it your Dad?" Tony started to ask all the questions but Ziva was in no mood to answer any of them. The less they said, the easier this was on her.

"Tony, I just think that ...it is ridiculous, we only... it is hard for me to tell you this but I do not think us being more than friends is a good idea. It...we..." Ziva bit her lips as she saw how hurt Tony looked. Although it seems ridiculous, but in the past two weeks she has observed enough to conclude that Tony and Gibbs were very alike. Although from the outside it seems that they are what they call ice opposites, no polar opposites, they have been both hurt very deeply before. They just used two very different ways to cover up their vulnerability, Gibbs acts all hard and unbreakable to prevent any enemies to break in while Tony joke to dance around the serious topics to avoid getting hurt. It hurt her more than she thought it would when she realized that she was adding another scar to his already broken heart.

"What? You...just like that? Just few hours ago you...and now you're telling me that it's a bad idea after I completely throw myself at you?" Tony finally managed to say as he found his voice back.

"I am sorry but it is for the best. I do not expect you to forgive me, but please understand that I did not mean for this to happen this way. "

"Yeah sure whatever." She winced as Tony responded flatly. The three dismissive words hurt Ziva as if a bullet passed through her heart, shuddering it into a million pieces. And at that point Ziva knew that this was not another one of her imaginary scenes but it was real. There was no turning back now. She had just destroyed the relationship of her and the boy that she liked, no, he was not another one of her crush, the boy she fell in love with single handedly. Now not only can they not be together but they cannot even be friends anymore.

"Tony I..." Ziva managed to say through her dry throat.

"What Ziva? What?" When Ziva didn't, no, chose not to continue, he did. "Just as I thought. You know you're right. Maybe this was a bad idea. But don't worry we can still be friends, right?" Tony smiled but it neither reached his eyes nor his heart. A men called his name from the front door of his house. "I should go. See you Monday?" Tony said but nothing he said had anymore emotion in them anymore. He ran casually to his house but he wondered to himself where he found that energy because he felt numb as if his whole body was frozen.

Ziva closed her eyes and let a droo of tear fall down her face. She quickly wiped it away scolding herself for crying. _You did what you had to do Ziva. It was best for Tony._ _Your father is going to send you back to Israel anyway. He is not going to change his mind because your brother fainted protecting you. It's best for Tony to think that you did not want this and left than for him to find out that there could have been something but you were not capable of getting it. Maybe you father is right, if you are not capable of getting something, you do not deserve it. So why have two broken hearts when it could be just one? He'll forget you eventually, he will find a nice girl to date again real soon, he was Tony, he always got better. _But it did not matter what she told herself because she knew that none of it was true. She wanted to turn the clock backwards and start the day all over again. _Maybe if you had remembered that there was a guest today this would not have happened. Maybe if you had checked your clock at the park, it could have ended differently. Maybe if you had begged your father instead of defying him completely, he could have seen your point or at least not send you back to Israel. At least then Ari would not hate you for dragging him into this mess and and you would not have broken Tony's heart and maybe you could even have found something to work things out with Tony without your father knowing,_ she told herself_._ But none of the maybe ifs was going to happen because this was reality and at that moment, to Ziva David, reality hurt more than anything in the world.

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_TBC and please review _


	10. Suspensions

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any characters or anything related. I just own the story and the 2 guys in the chap that I made up that is super unimportant.

_Oh which by the way the story is rated T for some language. I don't know why I'm saying this but I just though of it when I wrote the fight scene._

_And any mistake is my own mistake, realizing that the previous chaps have too much mistakes. I might fix it in the next week or so since I realized several major mistakes especially with the POV. Anyway I tried hard to pay more attention and edit with the new ones but I apologize for those that I missed.  
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Tim McGee lit up as the final bell of the day rang. Everyone in the school have been waiting for this day since well the beginning of the semester. It was finally spring break. And when he said everybody, he meant everybody. Even people who liked school like Tim loved that week off. But this year, to Tim, spring break had been extra luring because he could finally get some peace. It was like the Christmas of 1914 in World War One. Well, his conflict was not nearly a tenth as horrifying had that have been but he was still grad for the break.

Now that he thought back to it, Valentine's day weekend was the last peaceful day that he and his friends got. Where ever they went and what ever they did, Jenny and Gibbs' relationship had taken a down hill since that weekend. Well the Wednesday after the weekend anyway. They had been extra and uncharacteristically sweet for them right after the weekend but by the middle of the week Gibbs had practically stopped talking to Jenny and Jenny was quite sour towards him too. But then again, McGee thought to himself, they could have been affected by Ziva and Tony. _God, Ziva and Tony._ Nobody could really put a finger on it what happened. _They have been ...they are being... well... mysterious? Weird? Horrific?_ What ever it was, it was causing big trouble.

Ziva and Tony had been very close since she moved here. Their attraction to each other had been quite obvious, well really obvious because even Tim saw it. When Tony called in and asked to hang out on Valentine's day and according to Jenny's phone call later that day to Abby, they went to a park, he and everybody was was sure that they would finally hook up. But instead, the Monday after that Ziva didn't even show up for school. She and her brother was absent until Thursday that week and Tony refused to tell anyone anything. Really, if Ziva just disappeared and didn't come back, Tim would have assumed that Tony did something stupid and hurt Ziva. But after Ziva came back _she_ looked guilty, or at least acted that way. Because she kept trying to talk to Tony but he either ignored her, made some joke out of what she said, or came up with stupid excuses.

Ever since Ziva came back from her still unexplained three day absence, Tony has been... too Tony. He made jokes out of everything that anyone was trying to talk to him about that it became impossible to say anything serious to Tony unless it involved football. He had been hitting on every single girl he saw, including the ones he once announced as unattractive. Not only that but three weeks ago, he got back with Jeanne. Jeanne! His obsessive stalker ex-girlfriend that he described as a psycho that nobody could deal with. In fact they have been making out in very, _very, _public places. The principal had to call them in five times already to warn them that not everyone appreciates public intimate affection. And the times that other teachers and students had either groaned or complained about them? It was too much to count.

All the conflict between Gibbs and Jenny, and Tony and Ziva had made life insufferable for rest of the group. They were often put into the middle of the fight between Gibbs and Jenny which never ended well. And they had came up with hundreds of ideas to make Tony and Ziva get back together or at least feel comfortable enough to talk, but none of them worked. All the teasing from Tony have made Kate super cranky. He and Abby was always arguing about whether or not they should stick their nose into their friends' business. Poor Ducky was stuck in middle of all their problems when he himself had heavy schedule and college arrangements to worry about. He tried his best to give advice to everyone and make things better but he was always torn and even Ducky could not hold it in him all the time and Tim really couldn't blame him. If he was in Ducky's shoes he would have blown up three weeks ago. And Gibbs who usually puts everyone back in line when they fought was in his own huge fight and couldn't really deal with anybody else and school have been a nightmare .

But it was spring break and they could finally stop all that and relax. Tim could not even start to describe how much he wish that by some miracle everything would be better when they got back. _Maybe a beautiful level 5 sorceress would come and save you... wait WHAT? What's wrong with you Tim? You're now imagining that some random fictional character would save you? _Tim sighed and shook his head as he realized he really needed a girlfriend or at least get away from all the crazy stuff. A week long vacation was exactly what he needed.

He waved as he saw Abby and Kate waiting for him at the stair case door. "Hey Kate, Abs"

"Hurry up Tim, everyone's probably at the bleachers already." Abby said impatiently. As much as he hated Abby calling him Timmy all the time when she stops every time they have a fight he kind of miss it. Right now was one of those times because he had to convince Abby that locking Tony and Ziva in a closet together would not solve their problems. Which was true because Ziva would probably have killed him within a minute. Although he wondered what she would use, maybe a mop, but how would that work? But he was sure that Ziva would find a way anyhow but he was surprised that she didn't do anything when Jeanne supposedly 'accidentally' spilled her orange juice on her cargo pants last week.

"Alright, I'm coming." Tim said as he rushed down the stairs to catch up as with the two he saw them already at bottom of the stairs."So spring break huh? Any plans?"

"Nope" The two girls answered simultaneously.

Tim nodded slowly, giving up his try to make a conversation. When they reached the bleachers, everyone except Tony was there.

"Hey guys! Where's Tony?" Abby asked.

"Home." Ziva said.

"Office" McGee answered at the same time, causing everyone to looked at them in turn.

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_Early that day_

_Tim was walking down the hall way with his math textbook in his hands since his backpack was too heavy to fit in another one of his big, fat, ancient textbook. He was for the billions time that week daydreaming and not paying attention to his surroundings as he accidentally bumped into Greg and Nathan  
_

_"Watch where you're going." Greg said as he pushed Tim against a locker. Greg Thomson was a very big wrestler, and boy did he mean big. He wasn't a jerk or anything but he does have a short temper and you don't mess with him._

_"Yeah watch it, freak." Nathan Nelson added. Greg wasn't the smartest guy around so he has Nathan, who in turn is a jerk, so technically Greg is a jerk too because he doesn't have his own brain not that anybody would dare to point that out. Jerks and big guys never ended well for Tim and having them together, well it was just horrible. "What ya got there?" Nathan knocked his textbook out of his hands and swayed above his head. Tim being a little shorter than average and Nathan so tall, there was no way he was going to win. _

_When Nathan saw Tim hang his head down in defeat he grinned and started to tease him. "What's Timmy McLoser going to do when his precious textbook gets stolen? Huh? Call mommy?" He laughed and a lot of people near by did the same. He continue to mock him as he twiddled his fingers. "Ooo... I'm so scared." He started to laugh louder as he realized McGee was really going to stand there letting him tease him without a fight, probably because of Greg behind him. _

_Just as Tim was about to ran away into the bathroom as always, a tall girl with curled dark brown hair made her way through the crowd. "Hey leave the poor guy alone Nathan." Tim was now really surprised when he realized the beautiful girl was defending him._

_"None of your business. What are you? His bodyguard? Wait shouldn't it be the other way around? What McLoser, you need a girl to defend you?" _

_"Don't make fun of his name Nathan. Which oh by the way, Nathan Nelson? What kind of parents name their kid Nathan Nelson?"_

_"You..." Nathan was really pissed now. Instead of launching himself at the girl he pushed her way into the crowd causing her to fall down.. "I won't hit a girl, but you McLoser, I don't mind."_

_Tim's eye widened in fear as Greg made a snapping sound he clenched his right hand into a fist. Everybody around him was cheering. _

_Nathan put his arm in front of Greg. Apparently he wanted to fight this one himself which amazingly enough made Tim feel a lot better. He still felt sick to his stomach though. Nathan's fist was half way to his face when he closed his eyes but it never came. He opened his eyes and saw a girl was in front of him now. She had brown wavy hair, was wearing a cargo pants and a long grey jacket. Then Tim realized that it was Ziva.  
_

_"You don't want to do what I think you want to do" She warned him seriously without a hint of otherwise._

_"Oh? And what do you think I want to do that you think I don't want to do?" Nathan smirked at her, somewhat stupidly unaware of how dangerous Ziva could be. But he learned it within the second that he stopped talking. Ziva kneed him in the stomach and pressed him against the locker where Tim had just been._

_"Do not play games with me!" Ziva exclaimed with her lightly accented English. She tighten her grip on his wrists. "How does this feel? You like being slammed against a locker?" _

_"Fuck you bitch!" Nathan hissed. _

_Everything else after that happened very fast. Ziva narrowed her eyes, she released her right hand from him but before he could move her free elbow crunched against his nose making it bleed. Greg, who had being observing this whole time decided that it was his time to interfere, had Ziva in a headlock. Ziva gasped for air but it was a show because at the same time her heel met Greg's groin causing him to fall. But she wasn't fast enough when Nathan punched her in her face as she was trying to regain her position. She was on the ground and Nathan was now on top of her. He kept hitting her but somebody hauled him backwards. It was Tony, Tony had started to brawl fight with Nathan, and Ziva was now facing Greg ready to take him down when he got back up. _

_"What in the world...!?" Vance snarled in anger as he made his way through the crowd trailing off as he saw a girl on the ground with a scraped knee, a nerdy guy in the corner looking scared, two boys rolling on the ground smacking each other, and a wrestling champion and a Israeli girl ready to fight._

_The four immediately straightened themselves turning to see their principal as he dropped his mouth and his toothpick fell out. _

_Vance now completely fumed barked orders to the six people still remaining, "You," pointing to the girl who first defended Tim, "Get a bandage. You," now looking at him, "Get to class" and turning himself to the four troublemakers. "You four, OFFICE NOW!" _

------------------

"Why didn't you tell me this Timmy? You could have gotten hurt. Ziva could have gotten hurt. Tony could have gotten hurt. Why didn't you tell me?" Abby started to rapid fire all of her questions at him.

"Well I'm sorry, you seemed to be too busy blaming me for ruining your plan to lock Ziva and Tony together in a janitor's closet!" Everybody was surprised at that, but Tim was still focused on the morning incident. He turned to Ziva. "I'm sorry"

"What are you sorry for Tim?" Ziva turned to look at him and Tim was surprised to see that she wasn't joking, she really didn't know.

"Well it's my fault that you and Tony got suspended. I should have defended myself and then it would not have happened this way. I'm just a burden to everyone." He explained hanging his head down. Ziva pushed him aside and dragged him to the back of the bleachers.

"You are right." Tim hanged his head even lower but Ziva snapped it up and when he looked her into her brown eyes he could see that she wasn't angry but was instead very sincere. "You should have defended yourself. You may not be the strongest guy in the world, or fastest, or the funniest. But you are a very smart, charming, and great guy. Don't let anyone, and I mean anyone, tell you otherwise. Be confident in yourself."

He was about to say thanks but Ziva had already dragged him back to the crowd. "My father is away this week and I would like to invite all of you to a dinner tomorrow evening at my house."

Everybody lit up at the news and all agreed to go. Then Ducky asked a question that Tim was aware of before anybody else but did not dare to ask. "Would Tony be there?"

"Yes he agreed to come before he went home." She answered quickly.

"That is great." Ducky smiled.

"_Sister, this is not a good idea" _Tim for the first time realizing that Ari was sitting at other side of the bleachers observing the whole time finally finding a gap to interrupt between everybody's happy outbursts.

"_I know what I am doing. Father is away this weekend." _Tim looked around and saw that everybody was confused as much as he was. Except maybe for Jenny who was looking really intense as if trying her best to pick up a few of the Hebrew that she would understand, but clearly failed and Ziva probably knew that as she did not bother to speak in private as she did with Tim.

"_I know you want to make it up to Tony and your friends but there is another way. It is too dangerous, you know very well that father can come home early just as easily as for him to leave without telling us. It is not a good way to convince him to let you stay here in America next school year, and you are already suspended." _

_"You do not have to stay."_ Ziva said flatly and turned back to her friends. "Tim and Abby would you mind walking home without me? I think I need to prepare for tomorrow and need to do some shopping. I only stayed to tell you about the dinner."

While she grabbed her back pack, Tim asked. "Do you need us to bring anything?"

"No, you do not have to come with anything, just yourselves. See you tomorrow, yes?" She smiled and turned to walk towards the street.

"I will go with her. Good bye." Ari gave an empty smile and nodded at them before following his sister.

Maybe miracles can happen, Tim thought to himself, not by some magical people, but just people.

* * *

_I know there's some confusion for since it jumped one months and the first half with absolutely no dialog is boring but it's just so much more fun and better for me to write this way. Any question unanswered will be answered soon, like in the next chap. Anyway..._

_TBC and please review  
_


	11. Conversations

Dislaimer: I would love to but I do not own NCIS

* * *

Ziva looked around her kitchen again before glancing up to the wall where the clock was. Everything she needed was ready here and it was 1600h which gives her exactly two hours before her guests arrive. She had asked her friends to come at 1800h so they could talk or 'hang out' as Americans called it before dinner. She looked at the ingredients on the kitchen counter and decided to start with making the appetizer since she had already prepared the lasagna the night before and it only needed to be baked. As she started to chop up the lettuce she let her mind wonder to the phone conversation the night before.

--------------

_The Night Before_

_Ziva snapped her phone open to only shut it close again only a few seconds later for the eleventh time in the past half an hour. Angry at herself for not having enough courage to call she threw her phone across the room. She groaned and placed her face in her hands as she tried to figure out what she should do. Nothing came to her mind other than the fact that she screwed up fat time, or was it big time? It did not matter she decided, she was about to get up and prepare for tomorrow night when the cell phone that she had chucked away few minutes ago started ringing. Too annoyed at her situation, she did not bother to look at the caller ID before answering curtly."Ziva David."_

_"Uh...hey Ziva. It's me Tony. Ah... am I interrupting something because if it's not a good time I could call back or not if you don't want me to." _

_"Tony." Ziva simply stated, no other words forming in her mind. For the past hour she had tried get the courage to call him but she was saved the trouble. But she still had no idea what she could say, she definitely did not think this through._

_ Earlier that day she had mentioned the dinner plan to Tony before anybody else, perhaps even herself because she was surprised at the offer that she made herself. She asked him if he would like to come to dinner with rest of their friends tomorrow and he said he would consider it. Vague answers like that was all she received from him in the past month. She had tried very hard to fix their relationship without telling him what was really going on but it was not working in. Out, she thought to herself, that was what Tony would do, correct her English mistakes but these days he never did even when she did it on purpose, trying to make him laugh even if it was at her. Even though the answer was probably meant as a no she had told her friends later that afternoon that he would be there and she had been trying all day to find a way to get him to agree._

_"You know what, never-"_

_"No. I am sorry if I answered the phone harshly but it was not at you, I did not check the caller ID. I was just... thinking... it does not matter. What did you want to talk to me about?" Ziva said desperately trying to make the longest conversation they have had in the past month without some random jokes last as long as... well as long as possible._

_"Oh. I just called to tell you about what you said this afternoon. I felt rude to leave you with an answer like that, I-" He started but Ziva did not let him finish because she was very, no extreamely afraid that he would say no._

_"Everybody else agreed to come. We would miss you if you do not come. It has been a long time, we have not hanged out together since..." Ziva trailed off as she realized when the last time was, not wanting to go into that subject again she brushed that idea off. "Everyone would have a better time if you come, it will be fun. You do not even have to stay that long, just for the dinner, then you could leave, but please at least come." Ziva felt guilty that she was trying to make him guilty just to make him come. She knew that he cared a lot about her friends and that was the only way that Ziva could ever get him to come so even though she felt bad about it, she still played the card._

_There was a long silence, not the silence that they used to have that meant comfort and support to each other, but the very awkward ones that made Ziva want to ditch the phone and run to the airport. Then she realized that was such a Hollywood movie move that Tony would comment about. Tony, she really missed the Tony that used to be funny and happy and made everyone laugh. The Tony right now only made jokes to avoid talking to her and it just... she could not even describe what that made her feel. But she could not go further with her thoughts as Tony interrupted._

_"Yeah, sure I'll come. You're right it has been a long time... I... I gotta go. See you tomorrow Ziva." Tony answered from the other end. The answer made Ziva so happy but she still could tell the hint of doubt in Tony's voice._

_"See you tomorrow." She managed to add before he disconnected. _

--------------

Ziva let out a big sigh as she realized that the dinner could make or break the relationship as they say. _What relationship? You cannot possibly think he wants to get back together with you. Wait you were not even together in the first place. Besides he is dating Jeanne, you broke his heart and now you have to pay the price. So deal with it! _She scolded herself as she realized what she really meant by 'relationship'. But she still did want to make their friendship work again at least, or else things can get very awkward, not that it was not already awkward enough. She drew in deep breath and promised herself that she was going to make this work.

Ziva mixed her salad as she poured the last of ingredients into the bowl. Once she finished, she prepared to make the falafel to put in them. At 1748h, she finally finished as she placed the fried falafel on to the salad. She turned around and saw Ari leaning against the kitchen door looking at her. She would have jumped at his presence if she did not know her half-brother better, but she did and she was used to it by now.

"Thought I smelled your falafel. Very nice dish, I do not think anybody has ever not loved your falafel. I for one would never pass on an opportunity to have them." Ari said still leaning against wooden door.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Since you started the mixer." Ari answered in a matter-of-fact tone.

"You have been standing there the whole time?" Ziva said with a little edge, half mad at her brother for observing her without her permission, and another half mad at herself for not noticing him for such a long time. But it was gone as soon as Ari smiled at her. "Do not try to grab one of them when I am not paying attention, or else..." She mock threatened him.

Ari chuckled as Ziva teased him, it made him remember the time when she was eight and it was the time she made a batch of cookies for their father on his birthday. It was the secret recipe that her mother had just taught her, and even though Ari knew better it just smelled so good and he knew just how good his sister's baking was. So he sneaked into the kitchen when she wasn't looking and took several of them hoping that his sister would not notice. But in the end she did and she got all mad and started to hit him. Ari got desperate and tried to brush her off but she kept following him around so he pushed her a little too hard. She backed into small cabinet and the flower vase shuddered as she fell to the ground. Some of the shuddered glass pieces got into her right arm and her eyes started to moist. Just then their father came home from a late night and when he saw Ziva he started to yell at her for breaking the vase and scolded her for crying. He told her to clean it up as he went into the kitchen. Before Ziva could even get up their father came back with the bowl of cookies. When he asked Ziva if she made this and she nodded proudly, he slapped her across the face and told her to do something useful like learning to clean and reload a gun instead of causing trouble and baking useless things. Ari was not sure if his father was really mad at what Ziva did or if he was just angry from work and pouring his anger onto her, but Ziva started to cry again. He slapped her again telling her that crying is weakness that she should not have before dumping the cookies into the garbage can. When he stormed off Ari went up to his sister and hugged her. He cleaned up her wound and sang her to sleep. He brought her upstairs and tucked her in bed before going down stairs and cleaning up the mess.

Although Ari and Ziva were only half-siblings, they were very close, perhaps even closer than most siblings. Especially after that night they always stuck together especially against their father. And being the protective big brother that he was he knew that this is one of the time that he had to snap Ziva back in to reality. "Ziva, this is not a good idea."

"I never asked you to stay."

"You know very well that this is not about me Ziva. It is you, you are already suspended as it is. If father catches you bringing people over to the house without his permission, you are not helping yourself to convince him that you deserve to stay here for another year." Ari knew that Ziva knew what he was referring to, and without realizing it both of their minds wondered off to that night's conversation, except that Ari did not fully comprehend what really happened that night.

--------------

_About a month ago_

_"Father, at least let Ziva stay for rest of the semester. She had only been here for two weeks, it would look bad if she leaves now." Ari begged his father to let Ziva stay in the States but he really did not know why he bothered to waste his breath since he knew very well that when his father's mind was made up, it was made up. It was not even his business in the first place, it would not have any effect on him if Ziva went back to Israel but he could not help himself when he saw how much she loved it here. _

_But Ari was very surprised as his father put the phone down. He beckoned Ziva into his office. Ari tried to follow but his father told him to wait outside and he obeyed. He had no idea what was going on but things was looking better. He did not bother to consider finding out since he knew his father picked a insulated office and he would know within a second that somebody was listening at the door._

_Meanwhile in the office Ziva stood in front of her father's desk waiting for him to start yelling. But it never came, instead he said the last thing that Ziva thought her father would say at that moment. "You may stay here until end of the school year."_

_Ziva widened her eyes in surprise and opened her mouth to say something but no sound came out. She had just broke Tony's heart last Saturday and spent the last three days packing her stuff all because she was one hundred percent sure that he would ship her back to Israel. And it would not have surprised her if he decided that as a punishment he would literally _ship_ her back. That was all that came to her mind and she knew that he would not appreciate the thought that his daughter viewed him as such a man._

_"Under one condition." Ziva relaxed as her father said so because if he acted nice for another minute she would have blown up. There was always a reason why Eli David did things. "I made you come here for you to improve your English and build a background, _not_ to make out with stupid American boys." Ziva had to bite her tongue to stop herself from snapping back that Tony was _not_ stupid. "He looked pretty... emotional back there no?"_

_Ziva was now really confused. What was her father talking about? Then it clicked, her father knew, her father knew that she broke up with Tony for lack of better terms. "You had people spying on me?" Ziva asked no longer able to suppress her anger._

_"Oh no. How would it look if the Deputy Director of Mossad required other people to tail a fourteen year old? It is not a hard task, my daughter." Eli answered with a half smirk._

_Ziva did not know what made her more mad. The fact that her father was spying on her or the fact that he was admitting it without a single hint of guilt or regret for invading her privacy. She really did not know whether she should be furious that he followed her around as 'business' or should be faltered that her father had bothered to go after her himself. But it did not make her feel good that having her break up with Tony was her father's intention all along, not to sent her back to Israel. Attending high school in the States was too big of a good background for her father to pass off like that, all he needed to do was get the obstacles__ in the way out of the way. As much as she hated it she had to admit that it was a smart plan._

_"I would assume that you ended the 'relationship'" He said rolling his eyes at the word 'relationship', "As long as it stays that way, I see no problem in you staying here rather than Israel. As for next school year... it has to depend on your performance... I really hope it was not tear that I saw that night back at Anthony DiNozzo's house. To show such weakness... America has not made you soft, Ziva, has it?" He continued as more of a threat than a question. _

_Ziva stiffened visibly and had to use all of her power to try and not visibly shudder at the thought that her father may have saw her cry. Tears was never welcome in the David family and through out childhood Ziva had learned that crying always ended in unpleasant consequences. She took a deep breath before answering. "No, papa."_

_"Good." He stated flatly without an expression. He slipped on his eye glasses and started to read one of his many files on his desk. Understanding that the discussion is over, Ziva turned towards to door. When she stepped out side she forced a smile onto her face. "I can stay until end of the year."_

_"That is great." Ari said as he smiled full of happiness unlike Ziva's Ziva had convinced her father to let her stay by falling into his trap, but the price that she paid, she really was not sure whether it was worth it._

--------------

"He would not come back early, and even if he did you would not be home so you would not be in trouble." Ari sighed as he realized what his sister was worrying about, which was definitely not the right thing.

"Do you really want to go down that road again?" Ari asked, remembering that it had took him a full two weeks before he was able to convince his sister that he did not hate her for the slamming door incident. He was never sure whether she was fully convinced or was just trying to not piss him off by showing that she was not convinced. Ziva was a horrible lier, but if she truly believed that hiding or changing a fact was the right thing to do, nobody could see through her.

Ziva broke off the eye contact without answering.

"You do not want to anger father further. Maybe if you could do a picnic outside instead of in the house." Ari suggested which Ziva just shook her head at.

"This is not Israel, you cannot just go outside and eat in middle of March, it is cold this year. Beside I still have to use the oven for the lasagna. Really Ari, you should leave, you do not have to stay."

"No. If you are here, I am, what if you need to use the car, fine I know you know how to drive. But just in case you need me I will be up in my room, nobody would even notice me."

Seeing that Ari was not going to change his mind Ziva gave up and went back to preparing her desert, even though she really did not want to bore Ari or get Ari into trouble just in case her father finds out later. After a few minutes the door bell rang.

"Good luck." Ari whispered in her ears as he got ready to go to his room but she grabbed his arm.

"You should stay. It will be nice." Ziva offered and when he looked doubtful she added one thing that she knew would make him stay. "I need you here."

Ari softened as Ziva said that. He could never really say no to his little sister. Because in Ari's mind, the world could turn upside down for all he care but nothing would ever turn him against his little sister. He have always stood by her and he always will protect her no matter what. He smiled at her in encouragement and she opened the door to reveal her guests. The evening had began.

* * *

_I apologize if they are out of character sometimes but I do try my best. Next chap is finally be the dinner. Oh by the way if you have not noticed I do not write about everything, I just pick some interesting time of the year for the characters to do something. Just so you know after the march break I'm actually planning to skip until the finals or even maybe until the summer break start. So if anybody have any ideas as to anything they could do in between or after that, I am always open to suggestions. Thanks  
_

_TBC and please review.  
_


	12. Movies and TV

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS

_SO, now I'm going to rant on about season 7 premier so if you haven't seen it, skip this and read the story. The season premier was AMAZING! Really, I wouldn't say it was the best episode ever but the producers got it right when they said the viewers would think they know what's going on but they don't know what's going on. When I read that during the summer I just expected that it'll be a bit better than the later season 6 episode (No offense to those who liked them but I think it was just plain horrible, ok so it's wasn't horrible but i just didn't like them as much) but I was on the edge of my seats the whole time. There were lots of surprises, like the one where Tony said Ziva was dead. That totally threw me off, and slowly revealing what happened in the past while another plot is going on the present was awesome. (Granted it is a TV show and there are unrealistic scenes such as how the hell did Gibbs get to the building when he was like up the hill so far just just like a minute ago or the fact that Ziva was held captive by a terrorist for couple of months and she didn't need to check in with the hospital when she got back to DC) Can't wait till Tuesday to see what happens to Ziva. Now back to the dinner...  
_

_

* * *

_McGee and Abby were the first ones to arrive at Ziva's house at exactly six o'clock sharp, and couple minutes later they were joined by Ducky. Just as they finished greeting each other, the doorbell rang again. Ziva walked towards the door and opened it for the third time in ten minutes.

"Hi Ziva." Kate said as Ziva let her in. "You got a nice house." She commented as took a look at her new friend's house. It was probably one of the larger houses in the neighborhood and it was well built but it kind of felt empty as it was barely decorated with anything. But then again, Kate reminded herself that Ziva had moved in just over a month ago. "I stopped by Tony's place before I came."

Ziva felt her body froze as Kate took a pause to take off her jacket. She was looking forward to having Tony over, and she felt so grad when he agreed to come. She knew that Tony lived just next door to Kate and since he did not come with her, Ziva was quite positive that he changed his mind. Although she was really disappointed, she could not bring herself to blame Tony for changing his mind without telling her because if she was in his shoes, she would not forgive herself neither. But then Kate continued.

"He said he had to stop by somewhere before coming over so he'd be couple of minutes late."

Ziva relaxed her shoulders as she learned that Tony was coming after all. "Tim, Abby and Ducky are in the living room." Ziva pointed to the living room for Kate as she looked at the clock. "I am just getting the dinner ready and I will be there in a minute."

Kate nodded as Ziva disappeared into the kitchen door. She headed towards the room Ziva identified as the living room. On the way she noticed a large bright room and its door was half open and as she walked by, she noticed that there was a enormous bookshelf filled full with books. She also saw a big leather arm chair in front of a large desk so she concluded that it was probably Ziva's dad's office.

Everybody on the couch turned as she entered to room. "Hey guys."

"Hey Kate." Tim and Abby said at the same time as she sat down beside them.

"Hello Caitlin." Ducky smiled at her and she smiled back. "Abigail was just about to explain to Ari why Harry Potter is a good movie."

Kate turned around to see what Ducky was looking at behind her, only to be surprised that Ari was right behind her. Ari was just as bad as Ziva when it came to sneaking up on people, if not worse. "Hello Ari."

"Hello Caitlin." Ari responded politely. She blushed as she realized how close they were, because she could have sworn that there weren't even enough room for a thin piece of paper between them. She was grad that Tony was not there to watch as she almost tripped on the side table when she backed away, because if he did, he would never let her forget it for rest of her life. And these days, that may not be an understatement since his teasing was getting worse and worse. She tried to remember what they were talking about before to try and fill in the silence. And then it hit her; they were talking about Harry Potter.

"You've never seen a Harry Potter movie before?"

"No" Ari simply replied.

"How could you-" Kate tried to say but Abby cut her off.

"That's what I have been saying for the past... two minutes. Anyway how could someone have never watched a Harry Potter movie? It's like _the _best known fantasy movie in the whole world!" She ranted on and on but Tim stopped her.

"You know Abby technically it's not-"

"I don't care about the technically. Ok so it probably isn't the _most_ popular, and I don't even really think its special effect is _that_ awesome, but it's still a movie that every teen in twenty first century should have watched."

"I have to agree." Kate added. "It is a popular movie. "

"It is true. If you watch movies, you have to watch Harry Potter. It's shown in more than 50 countries, 65 to be exact with three premiers each in Tokyo, London, and New York, and an IMAX version in the states and Canada." Everyone raised their eyebrows at Tim, which caused him to go into panic. "Not that I pay attention to them or anything, really."

"Let's just say you're lucky Tony isn't here." Kate laughed as she saw Tim's expression. Abby laughed as well, and Ducky tried his best not to but he couldn't help himself as he found a chuckle escaping. Even Ari was grinning in amusement.

"Well, I have not seen it because I have seen total of three movies." Ari stated back to the original question. Abby audibly gasped and everybody else was surprised too.

"Nooo. You've got to have seen more!" Ari shrugged at Abby's startled answer.

Before anybody could say anything else Ziva came into the room with Jenny and Gibbs behind her. The group on the couch minus Ari was surprised that they did not hear the doorbell as they saw the couple. Ari would have been surprised too if he did not hear the door clicking as it closed just two minutes ago. He was not surprised but he was curious why Ziva opened the door before the doorbell rang.

"Oh hi Jenny, Gibbs. We didn't hear the doorbell." Tim said.

"That's because we never rang it." Gibbs stated in monotone.

"Wh-" Abby and Tim started at the same time.

"I was just passing the door when I though I heard two people arguing in front of the door." Ziva answered their unfinished question, knowing exactly what it was.

"We were not arguing. We were simply having a... disagreement." Jenny glared at Ziva, who only rolled her eyes.

"Yes. You were having a _'disagreement'_." Ziva said in sarcasm.

Jenny narrowed her eyes in threat that would have scared the crap out of normal people, but compared to Ziva's it was nothing. So she gave up and changed the subject. She commented half-joking, half-serious, "How could you understand the concept of 'air quotes' when you can't get half of the idioms right?"

Ziva shrugged, "It is easier to remember since it does not involve translation from several languages. I do not have to remind you that English is not my first language, do I? In fact it is not even on the top three of my list."

After couple of minutes Abby found the remote to the large dusty plasma TV sitting against the living room wall. "Ziva, would you mind if I flipped through some channels?"

"Sure." Ziva answered almost instantly without registering what she asked. Then she realized that she was talking about the television. "Wait I do not..." She trailed off as she saw that Abby and Tim were watching some science channel. Then she turned towards her half-brother. "We have cable?"

Ari shrugged not much unlike his sister and answered, "Father must have forgotten to cancel original owner's cable or he could have ordered it to watch news. You never know with him."

Ziva nodded barely realizing that everybody except Gibbs and Jenny was looking at them in shock. Finally Abby said, "I take it you don't watch TV neither."

"No" They answered simultaneously. Their tone which both lacked emotions would have been exactly the same if it was not for the gender difference. And even their body language and facial expression were the same. The sudden realization of how similar the siblings were sent everyone in the room giggling in amusement.

"What?" Ziva asked in confusion, furrowing her eyebrows together, which just made it funnier for everybody else.

"What do you do in your free time then?" Kate finally got herself under control and asked.

"Reading." _And training_, the siblings both thought to themselves after answering at the same time again, unknown to them that the other one was thinking the exact same thing. But they kept that part to themselves since others did not need to know that.

Meanwhile Kate was registering for the first time of all the books lying across the house. She picked one up from the coffee table. It was in a foreign language. "German?"

"That belongs to Ziva. It is Turkish, I believe." Ari answered.

"Wow Turkish. Do you speak Turkish too, Ari?" Kate asked in astonishment. She never knew that Ziva could read Turkish. As far as her knowledge goes she spoke English, Hebrew, and Spanish.

"No. I never found myself as talented as Ziva was in linguistics. I only speak Hebrew, Arabic, English, some Russian and Spanish, and barely any Gaelic." Ari replied.

"_Only?_ You consider that little? How many do you speak?" Kate asked now turning to the slightly shorter Israeli.

"Just Hebrew, Arabic, French, Spanish, English, and Turkish. Plus some German, Italian, and Russian. And I am currently trying to learn Wolof." Ziva listed, surprising everyone in the room except for Ari and Jenny. Even Gibbs was a little impressed.

"That's amazing Ziva." Tim complimented, clearly impressed.

Ziva just shrugged as if it was nothing. Jenny could only shake her head in amusement at how how little pride Ziva takes at her ability to speak six languages fluently and carry out a basic conversation in four others. Of course Ziva was confident, everybody knew that, but still it was not a big deal to her. Only Ziva could ever find it unimpressive, Jenny thought. Her friend was never satisfied with any of the skills she have. But then again she knew that Ziva was trying to live up to her father's standards, which was impossible for any human being to reach. Ziva knew that but she still never gave up and always found a way to beat herself up about a tiny little mistake she's made when she performed some task near perfectly.

The timer went off after ten minutes, after the group went into separate conversations.

"The lasagna is done." Ziva said while glancing up at the clock. "It is still early, do you want to wait for Tony for another half an hour?"

"Speaking of which where is Tony?" Jenny asked.

"He said he'd be couple of minutes late, but it's closer to half an hour. The guy doesn't have any time sense." Kate complained.

"Maybe he got caught up in traffic or something." Abby suggested.

"What traffic? It's spring break and the traffic is much less compared to the usual. And besides even if he walked here, he'd have arrived ten minutes ago."

"Why don't we set up the table first and if Tony doesn't show up by then, we'll decide then. Here I'll come help you." Jenny offered.

"Yeah me too. You wanna come Abby?" Kate asked.

"Sure." Abby answered as she and Kate got up from the couch to catch up with Ziva and Jenny who were already heading toward the kitchen.

After the girls left, the three boys were left in an awkward silence. Ari and Gibbs were having an unspoken staring match, both observing each other, not backing down. Tim who were caught in the middle shrank in his seat trying to escape the situation. Although nothing was happening, the two older guys staring at each other so intensely not uttering a single word twisted and turned his stomach. Just when he was about to break the silence, he was saved by the bell. Well, doorbell.

The three guys walked out of the living room just in time to see Tony stepping in.

"Tony! Where were you? You're like over 30 minutes late!" Kate started to complain.

"Nice to see you too Kate." Tony replied, "Besides what are you complaining about Kate? It's not your party, and you don't see Ziva complaining."

"Well, I'm sure she wants to know too." Kate shot back, but deep down inside she was curious as to why Ziva_ wasn't_ complaining. In the short time Kate had known Ziva, what she noticed was that Ziva hated being late, or other people being late. So she would have expected Ziva to be slightly pissed that Tony was so late, but then again it was Tony. Kate knew that there were something going on between them, something special, since the first time they've met, but in the past month or so they were acting very strangely around each other. It seemed as if they were avoiding each other and wanting to talk to each other at the same time. So they were either easily pissed at a little insignificant thing the other had done or extreamely forgiving about the other's mistakes. And the problem for rest of them was that they never knew which mood either of them were in. So they could never see what was the right things to say and always ended up escalating the conflict between Tony and Ziva. She really wish they could solve it already because what ever it was, it was making Tony very unbearable.

Then Kate realized that Tony was reaching into his backpack for something. He brought out what seemed like a DVD box, which proved to be right. "Quantum of Solace." He said pointing to the DVD. " Just released last Tuesday. Had to go to three different stores to get one. The 22nd movie of the amazing James Bond. I know you said we didn't have to bring anything but I just thought that a movie after dinner would be nice."

Ziva could do nothing but blink. Tony went to _three_ stores to just get a DVD of a movie that she bet he have already seen at least twice in the movie theater already. The only two reasons that anyone would ever do that is that they were either really desperate to get out of talking or really obsessed with the movie. And Tony was well... both. "That is a great idea Tony, but I do not own a DVD player."

"But you did say you own a TV. So..." He paused as his hand went into his backpack, "I brought my portable DVD player!"

"Of course you did Tony." Kate rolled her eyes. "Look Ziva took a lot of effort to make the dinner so why don't we eat first before it gets cold. We can talk about your stupid movies later, Tony." She said as she placed the last set of plates down.

Tony made a face at her. Then the tasty smell of lasagna registered itself causing Tony to say, "Mmm... smells nice. What'd you make Zee-vah? Lasagna?"

"Yes"

Tony rubbed her hands together and sat down at the table. "I didn't know that crazy ninja chicks can cook."

Ziva huffed and rolled her eyes. "Shut up movie boy before ninja chick decides to kill you with a paper clip." Ziva joked, playing with the paper clip she pulled out of her pants pocket. Ziva smiled as the room filled with laughter when everybody sat down around the table. She still did not know what effect the dinner will have on her relationship with Tony but she at least knew that everybody was going to enjoy it.

* * *

_So this is one of those filler chapters. Not too much action (not that this story has any real action, but you know just plot development) and no new info to reveal. Just a filler chap, but for the next one I've actually planned something so stay tuned (okay that probably sounded horrible but anyways...)_

_TBC and please review_


	13. Visitor at the Doorstep

Disclaimer: As much as I want to, I do not own NCIS or any of its characters.

_Sorry for not updating sooner but I was kind of busy. With it being my birthday last weekend and taking a trip out of town this long weekend I really didn't have time to update with the story. And having a minor writer's block definetely didn't help. But enough with my boring ramble and onto the story...

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_

"Tony would you please stop?" Tim begged, covering his years like everybody else in the room.

Tony stopped his singing for a moment to reply. "What McNosy? You don't Bonds songs? Why of course you won't, it's from a macho guy movie, and everyone knows that you're as far as you can get from macho guy."

Everyone, even Gibbs groaned as Tony started to sing the Goldfinger again. "Seriously Tony! It's annoying" Kate complained.

Abby and Ziva agreed. It was kind of funny when Tony first started to sing the Bond songs as the movie ended in his imitated voices and instrument effects that was way off, but after nearly thirty minutes it was just plain old annoying. But Tony gave no sign that he heard them. In fact it seemed as if he started to sing louder. But then he suddenly stopped and when the girls looked at him, he was already holding the back of his head in protection.

"Gibbs!" Tony squirmed but all he got was a glare, but that was all needed to be said. "Fine, but you got admit that it was a good movie." When nobody answered him he started to ramble on with the movie like he had done many many times before. "Oh come on people! The action, the guns and more actions. It's like the best. And you can't miss the Bond girl right? I mean Die Another Day was the better in that term but still and the actions in this one was-"

"Oh my god, what hell is wrong with you?" Kate started as soon as he mentioned Die Another Day and Bond girls. "I mean it's so obvious she's had like what fifteen plastic surgeries? Ok, maybe not but still. All the ridiculous models these days are like sticks! I mean who's that thin? Granted Halle Berry is an actress and she isn't that bad but still- "

"Chill Kate." Tony held his hands up in surrender.

"I'm sorry guys if I'm turning into Tony rambling on about the movies." She continued ignoring Tony's disapproval of her comparison. "But I just hate Die Another Day no matter what anybody says. Did you know that Kyle picked Die Another Day for our family movie night couple of years back? I mean I should have expected it since he stopped watching with us when he was twelve and all the suddenly when I got his into trouble he was all suddenly interested again and even volunteered to pick out the DVD, but still do you know how awkward it was to sit between my mom and my dad during the sex scenes while my stupid brothers are enjoying it like morons and having my mom try everything to distract me from looking at the screen? I mean I get it I was only eleven and she didn't want me to see it but it was still embarrassing to have her cover my eyes! Kyle tormented me with that for months! Besides I have seen dirtier stuff than that just from being in the same house as him!" Kate complained.

"Really Katie? You sure that that's what's bugging you. You sure it wasn't from more of a recent personal experience... oh I don't know maybe like a dream?" Kate gave Tony a warning glare but it only made him smile wider. "Don't be embarrassed, it's normal for girls to imagine her crush like a superhero. And Bonds does make it to the top list in sexual fantasies. You should really stop pretending that you don't have a crush on him and ask out A-" he was cut off as a book hit the side of his head. "Ow! People really should stop hitting my head, I might get a concussion and do you have any idea how many brain cells I just lost because of this book?" Tony held up the now crumpled book.

"Well maybe you should stop stealing people's diaries and reading them and besides how can you get any brain damage when you don't have one." Kate fired back.

"I'm hurt Kate." Tony mocked, opening his mouth into an exaggeratively big O shape. "Whose book is this? It can't be yours since I don't understand a single bit of this gibberish that just look like gibberish about some boring stuff that some boring guy or girl wrote." He commented as he flipped through the book she threw at his head.

"Mine." Ziva answered dryly as she grabbed the book out his hands.

"Huh" That was all Tony could say in return as he thought of how stupid he was to comment like that when the text clearly looked like Hebrew. _Or was it Arabic?,_ he thought but he waved it off as it wasn't important. What was was that he really didn't need to offend Ziva any more when they're already in... well the state that they were in. But then he asked himself why was he feeling so guilty. _I mean it wasn't as if I was really offending her or anything, I just called it gibberish. and it is true that I can't understand it. And the whole reason that it would have been a big deal was because they were in a really tense situation and that was definitely her fault. But then again Jeanne did purposely "accidentally" spilled her drink on her, and she was my girlfriend. Yep I really didn't need to screw things up more when it's already screwed like hell._

On the other side of the room Ziva was having a self-conversation of her own. _Ugh! What's wrong with me? It really was not as if we needed more conflict when we have a pile of them that was getting bigger and bigger everyday. It was just a stupid book, why was I so stupid and got so defensive over nothing? And it was not even my book to start with, it was father's._ But as she thought about it she shuddered at the thought of what her father would say when he found his now partly crumpled book. She cursed that it just had to be one of the few paperback books that he happened to own for some reason when 99% of his books are hardcover. And he just had to put it on the coffee table today and now that she thought about it there was still the suspension issue, but she pushed the thought away. She could deal with her father later but now she had to fix her relationship with Tony...somehow.

"What's wrong with you two lately?" Abby asked in frustration. Both Tony and Ziva snapped back into reality and was actually taken by surprise with Abby's sudden outburst. In fact everybody was surprised since they've all have been wondering about it for the past month but nobody dared to say anything because they were Tony and Ziva. To people who didn't know the pair, it would have been the stupidest reason ever but for people who did know them, it was more than enough.

"You know Ziva, I'm really sorry that I ruined your book, I'll buy you another one if I could find it but I really didn't mean to do that, it was an accident I swear, I was just mad that's all. Don't take that as an invitation to blame Tony neither because it was my fault, all my fault really..." Kate started to go on before either Tony or Ziva could answer Abby's question, because in that case either Ziva was likely to kill Abby with a paper clip or Tony was about to something... Tony-like.

"Hey Ziva I haven't thanked you for the dinner yet. It was really lovely. And Tony it was really thoughtful of you to bring a DVD. Wait did I say Tony was thoughtful? It doesn't matter it was a nice movie. And I should really thank both of you for yesterday's incident because I..." Tim started about the same time as Kate thinking the exact same thing as his friend. But they stopped when they realized they have been speaking over each other.

Tony and Ziva who now looked just simply amused chuckled lightly. Then Ziva started, "Kate it's fine, I do not care about the book. It was old anyway and the truth is that I hated it so you did me a favor," which was half the truth since the book was old and she did hate it since she usually does when it came to her father's books, but the rest was probably false since no matter how damn unimportant something was her father always made a big deal out of it if it involved Ziva or her siblings screwing up. "And Tim, you did thank me for the dinner, in fact right after it."

"Well I just wanted to make sure that you knew that I thought it was delicious in case you misheard me or something." He defended.

"And yesterday was no big deal, I mean any one of us in this room would have done it. That's what friends are for right? We'll never let anyone get away with calling you McNicknames or tormenting you."

"Tony you do it yourself all the time."

"Exactly. It's my job to torment you Elf Lord, I mean what would _I_ do if everyone started to do that to you too. " Tony answered and added when a question came up in his head. "Although I am curious as to who the girl was."

'Who?" Tim asked in confusion.

"I have been wondering that also Tim. Do you not remember? The girl on the ground with the scraped knee that stayed after everybody left after Vance came and he yelled at her too." Ziva added.

"Oh yeah that girl." Tim said in realization. "But I really don't know her. She just came out of nowhere and started to make fun of Nathan and Greg and defended me for no reason. But why would she do that?"

"Oh have a bit more confidence Timothy. The girl probably thought you were cute." Ducky said and Tim would have felt better if it was not for Tony's loud laughter.

"HA! Right, like anyone would ever think McGeek is cute." He said in between his laughters as he tried to control himself.

"No offense to you personally Tony but I always thought Tim was cuter." Ziva commented.

Tony finally got a hold of himself after Gibbs gave him a second headslap of the night after he started to laugh harder after Ziva's comment. "Uh it doesn't matter. But I'm so mad that our Picky Principal just had to interrupt our fight when I was just about to finish off Nathan."

Now it was Ziva's turn for laughing. "Really Tony?"

"Yeah! You haven't seen his face, if I landed just another one on him, he would have been begging for his mommy."

"You are boasted."

"Loaded" Tony corrected her which actually made her feel better even though she did not do it on purpose this time since he had not done it for well over a month and the truth was that she really missed it. "And for your information I am not."

"What happened to Greg and Nathan?" Jenny asked when she realized that they knew Tony and Ziva each got suspended but nobody knew what happened to Greg and Nathan.

"Oh they got suspended too. But they got it for a week for fighting _and_ bullying, which they totally deserve. They were getting really annoying lately. If they started one more fight I would have punched Nathan in the face no matter who he was picking on." Tony answered but Ziva just rolled her eyes at him.

"It's so not fair that you guys got suspended too for like... wait how many days again?" Abby asked.

"Three." Ziva held up three fingers.

"Three? That's so not fair, you were just defending Tim! They were the attackers, you guys were just defending yourself." Abby complained. "I really don't like Vance."

"Depends on what your definition of self-defense is. 'Cause Ms. Ninja-Chick over here kneed the wrestling champion that towered over her in the groin and was ready to start a wrestling match with him and probably _would_ have if Vance didn't show up."

"Well I at least was not rolling on the ground trying to get the upper hand on a guy that was _smaller_ than me." Ziva shot back.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter. Because of the fight I get to stay home for three days and do whatever I want, and what's not to like about that? You're probably going to do something that I probably don't want to know about though. But you got to admit making you miss school really isn't that bad once you deal with your parents and you won't even feel the damage until college application but then again that's like so many years away. But the thought of Nathan and Greg's screwing each other all week long isn't helping me sleep though.."

"What?" Ziva asked in confusion.

"What? Everybody knows that they're like totally gay. I mean Nathan Nelson, it even sounds gay. Maybe they're going to have threesome with Mr._Slacks_ too." Tony jocked.

"They are all gay?" Ziva asked.

"I'm just jocking."

"Well you never know. They are awfully close. But you really should not joke like that, you could offend people who are really gay and they are not mean."

"Why you know anyone who's you know...?" Tony asked now curious at Ziva's sudden curiosity on the subject.

"No but just because we do not know about them does not mean that they do not exist. They would never tell you or me or tell it to the whole school but there has to be at least a couple in our school since it is one of the biggest one in the area." She explained.

"So what you are saying is that just because guys doesn't say it doesn't prove that they aren't gay?"

"Yes."

"Oh so everyone's gay in our school?" Tony asked as a great scheme just entered his mind.

"Not everyone-" Ziva started to defend herself but it was already too late.

"But just those who has never kissed a girl." Tony interrupted her.

"No." Ziva denied in panic as she finally realized what Tony was doing.

Tony walked into the kitchen where Abby and Tim went after Tony and Ziva started their own conversation. Ziva hurried after him, knowing what he just tricked her into saying but still not sure what he planned.

"Hey McPie-Face!" Tony called Tim who was currently had a bit of pie on his face left over from the pie that he was just eating. "Are you gay?"

"What no!" Tim answered immediately at Tony's surprising question hoping that it would convince him that it was the truth.

"Really? But Ziva here says that you are." He pointed to Ziva who was just trailing after him.

"What?" Tim asked.

"No! No! I did not-" Then she turned to Tony. "You're-" Then back at Tim. "Tim, I really did not say that! I swear I would never-"

"I'm not gay. That's really mean Ziva." Tim said now catching up with what was going on. He decided that it would be more fun if he played along.

"What wrong Timmy?" Abby asked as she came back from the washroom.

"Ziva called me gay." Tim explained.

Ziva groaned as she realized that Tim was going to play along with Tony. "No I did not Tim."

"Sure you did." Tony said.

"Tony! What are you on? Crack? I swear you are high today!" Ziva exclaimed jokingly but at the same time really annoyed too. "And Tim I did not call you gay."

"Sure."

"Thank you."

"But you still called him gay." Tony ignored her raised eyebrow and continued. "Maybe I should tell Ducky that you called him gay too. Wait, does that mean your brother's gay too since I don't think he had kissed a girl at least in the States yet."

"Tony! What's wrong with you today I swear you're on crack!"

"Did you take coke this morning Tony?" Abby asked now realizing the joke and joined in.

"No. I do not like to take coke, I just like to smell them." Tony answered and caused the four of them to burst out laughing.

When they stopped laughing, the phone started to ring in the family room across the house. They followed Ziva into the room where the older kids and Kate was. When they entered, they heard Ari explaining that he was not interested in a improved cable service. Tony walked up to him and gestured towards the phone. Ari, curious as to what Tony had in mind gave him the phone.

"Hello." Tony said in his deep, deep voice imitating an old man and everybody giggled. "No, I am not interested in a Bell cable service, Mr...Banks. Yes , I am not interested but did you know that Ziva David called you gay? No she is a real person and she told me that you are-"

Ziva shot up from her seat and tried to grab the phone but Tony held it high. She pinched a pressure point on his hand and he screamed like a girl. She slammed the phone shut. "Tony!"

"Aw! That hurt!" Tony now squatting down on the floor complained rubbing his hand. Ari knew the pinch really hurt from personal experience but he could not help himself but to join the rest of the group in laughter at Tony's facial expression. "Hey! It really hurts! I'm gonna get back at you Ziva. I'm gonna get you back."

Ziva had just started to worry that she put too much pressures, but as Tony started to joke about payback she knew he was fine, well except that he had to deal with a numb hand for a while but he would be fine. The the doorbell rang. She started to stand up but Tony shot up first.

"Got it. Perfect chance for revenge, right Ziva? Muahaha."

"Tony! It might be-" Ziva was cut off as she realized that he was already at the door. She rushed after him. But she was too late as she saw Tony already talking to the guy at the door.

"...that really great and you know what else? Ziva just called you gay. You know who she is? No? Yes? I'll tell you anyway. She's-" Tony started to joke but was cut off as Ziva took in a sharp breath.

"Oh god."Ziva barely whispered as she realized who was at the door.

* * *

_Can you guess who's at the door? Yes? No? Want to know now? Whatever you think you still gotta wait till the next chap to find out. _

_TBC and please review.  
_


	14. Happy for the Time Being

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS

_I am so sorry that the updates took this long again, but I'm just having harder time of writing. I know the general things to write but the details is what I'm having trouble with. Anyway I'm sorry for the wait but at least this chapter is longer than the usual._

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"Shalom, Ziva." The guy at the door greeted as Ziva came into his view.

Tony slowly turned to face Ziva as she stared at the guy that standing at her door in surprise. _She knows this guy? Oh great, the day just get better and better doesn't it? I try to pull a joke and it turns into some kind of tragic drama , _he thought to himself. Or at least that's what it seemed at the moment to Tony. Since he had nothing better to say than some of his lamest jokes that came to his mind at the moment, he just stood there quietly waiting for someone to break the awkward silence. And after what seemed like hours, someone finally granted Tony's wish.

"Ziva. How are you?" The guy at the door, whose name was still Mr.I-Don't-Know to Tony, asked.

"Fi-" Ziva cleared her throat as she found it to be very dry for a moment before continuing. "Fine, Shmuel, I'm fine. And how are you?"

"Good." He answered.

"What are you doing here?" Ziva asked but as she realized that her tone sounded too demanding she added, "Not that you are unwelcome here but you-"

"I think what my sister is trying to say is what are you doing here when you should be half way across the world." Ari cut her off. "Thought I heard a familiar voice back here. I have been having a bad feeling for the entire day today and now I know why." He joked.

Ari grinned at Shmuel and he chuckled in answer. "How have you been Ari? It has been almost a year since I saw you last time."

"Has it been almost a year already? You know what they say-"

"Enough! Can you not catch up with each other later? Now seriously, what are you doing here Shmuel?" Ziva interrupted. Her voice was so fierce that everyone jumped, including Tony who had been observing the three Israelis the whole time without making a sound as they all seemed to have forgotten about him.

"Still has the bad temper I see." Shmuel commented as he tried to avoid laughing at his best friend's oldest younger half-sister's overly serious face.

Ari laughed out loud as Ziva just glared at him. "I would not make her mad if I was you Shmuel. You surely have not forgotten what happened the last time she got mad at you, now have you? You were so embarrassed that you avoided her for months."

At that reminder, Shmuel blushed and Ziva grinned for a moment. But soon it was gone from her face and she was serious again as she realized that they had gotten off the topic, _again._ She drew in a breath and prepared to demand for an answer again but Shmuel raised his hand.

"Yes I know Ziva, you want to know why I am here. To answer to your question is simply that I would be joining you and Ari at Naval Hills High after the spring break"

"What?" The sibling exclaimed simultaneously in the exact same manner much to Shmuel's amusement but it did not last long.

"Your father did not inform you?"

"Shmuel you know our father, he had never told us anything about things that actually involved our family, do you really expect that he would inform us about something that in his mind does not affect our lives?" Ari stated but his old friend still looked shocked. Even though Shmuel was not the toughest guy around Ari knew that as a child who was also from a Mossad family, unless things were serious, he would never let his shock hang right on his face for everyone to see. "Unless there is something else..."

"You father did not inform you that Tali will be joining you here?" Shmuel asked again but this time more clearer.

"Tali as in my sister is coming here, as in here here?" Ziva's eye widened in shock and surprise. When she saw Shmuel nod she asked, "When?"

"In fifteen minutes, she is staying behind with Michale to sort out the-" But his sentence was left unfinished as Ari cut him off in rage.

"Michael Rivkin?"

"Ari, it is fine, Michael and I are friends now." Ziva placed her hands on his shoulder trying to calm him down.

Tony narrowed his eyes at Ari's reaction. He'd never seen him show any emotion let alone an outburst like that but then again he was very protective of his sister even though Ziva was just his half-sister. He partly felt sorry for this Michael guy because if Tony was in his shoes he'd ran away as far as possible from Ari's wrath, but from the sound of it he might have deserved it too. And then Tony was hit with a sudden realization that the conversation between these three people have gotten a little too private and personal, and it probably wasn't for his ears to hear. Now Tony wondered if he should make his presence known because the three friends clearly had forgotten that he was still standing at the corner of the hall. But knowing Ziva, Tony was afraid that she'd get mad that he eavesdropped, not that it's considered eavesdropping since he was standing right beside them the whole time but he was also pretty sure that if Ziva had known that he was still there, there was be no way that she'd have let him hear that much. But before he could decide on which option he had would work out the best, Ziva's voice snapped him back into reality.

"Michael is coming as well?"

"Yes, Tali, Michael, Mr. and Mrs, Rivkin, my father and I landed couple of hours ago and we just cleared the customs an hour ago."

"Wait, what? Your father and-"

"We are moving here Ziva, all of us to Washington D.C." Shmuel cut Ziva off. "Mr. Rivkin and my father will soon arrive to discuss 'business' with your father. Michael and Tali are coming also to 'catch up' I believe is the term while they talk. When my father gave me his car keys and told me to go wherever I like until he calls me, I decided to come here early as an surprise but clearly it was more than I intended."

Ari nodded trying to absorb and analyze all the information that he was given while Ziva still looked slightly confused. "Your father is coming here to talk with my father but he is not here right now."

"Oh he is currently at the hotel the escorts that he sent to the airport to pick us up brought us to. Although they would be coming here soon. But I did not realize that we would have company." He gestured towards Tony and the same time looked curiously at Ziva. "Or at least your father still does not know that you have company at the house right now."

_Well at least someone knows that I still exist, _Tony thought to himself sourly. But then he made the mistake of making eye contact with Ziva. From his point of view, she looked pretty angry.

"What are you doing back here?" Ziva asked.

"I- uh- I never left?" Tony raised his shoulders and suggested. However that did not seem to make Ziva feel better. "Hey I wasn't eavesdropping if that's what you're suggesting because I was like standing in front of you guys the whole time. I just wasn't sure if I should interfere with the conversation that's all." Tony defended and it was not an excuse for once since it was the truth. He really didn't mean to listen but he did not know how to make himself known. There was nothing that Tony could have done differently in his mind. However Ziva was not so easily convinced. But luckily for Tony, Ari looked more forgiving.

"Tony I am so sorry but as you can see Ziva and I have some family issues to sort out. So..."

"Oh yeah it's getting late. We, um should head back home. " Tony responded awkwardly towards Ari's politeness since he really wasn't used to that.

Tony went back into the living room where rest of the group was still chatting. After Tony suggested, no insisted would fit the description better, for everybody to go back home, they all agreed. As everybody thanked Ziva again for the dinner and Tony for the movie when they headed out, Ziva dragged Tony by the arm back into the kitchen and closed the doors.

"Tony..." Ziva started but Tony did not let her continue.

"Hey you can't blame me for earlier okay? You looked so intense that I didn't want to bug you. Really I swear to God I really didn't mean to listen in without your permission in fact-" Tony raised his finger, "I didn't even hear that much. And honestly what did you expect me to do? I opened the door to pull a joke and suddenly you told me that you know him and all the things. I was confused."

"I know." Tony raised his eyebrows in shock. He was one hundred percent ready to start a yelling match again with Ziva when she got mad. They started fights for every single little things for the past month whether it mattered or not. Once they even fought for his choice of food as Ziva found it disgusting and Tony started a whole conversation about how it's American and all the unimportant things. They didn't make up for _that_ for _three_ frickin days so Tony was definetely not ready to see Ziva drop this subject so easily since he was slightly rude to stand there and listen if he was truthful to himself.

"What I mean is that..." Ziva trailed off as she tried to find words to explain but she was lost. She sighed and drew in a deep breath deciding to go with the truth. "Look, you are right, that was not your fault. Although you should not have opened the door and started to go on about how gay the person is without looking to see who was at the door and if he was a he in the first place, I... cannot disagree that it was not your fault since you did not know Shmuel."

"Okay." Tony said slowly stretching the word as he was really confused now.

Ziva bit her lips before continuing. "I just want to apologize for some of the things I did for the past few weeks while I have the chance. I should not have acted the way I did for the past month, especially when I was the one that caused such comfortablenesses in the first place. I am sorry for what happened on Valentines Day night. I should not have done that without giving you any explanations. But you have to know that I would not have done it unless I absolutely needed to. I know that you do not understand what I am saying but if I ever get the chance to I would explain. But I cannot stand to know that you think I wanted to do what I did, because I did not. I cannot say any more right now, you should really leave but I am sorry... for everything."

Ziva opened the kitchen door again but Tony could not bring himself to move. He was stunned at Ziva's uncharacteristic apology. Of course he knew that the Valentine's Day 'incident' was as simple as Ziva made it since her attitude made an one-hundred-and-eighty degrees turn in just hours, but he did not expect that kind of speech from Ziva. And he was really worried because Ziva played with the concept of the chance of talking to him again _twice_ and Tony had no idea why. He hoped that it did not mean that Ziva was leaving because as much as he hated to admit it, he really liked Ziva, more than Jeanne, more than any girl he had ever dated, heck more than all of them combined. He wanted to ask more but he decided against causing Ziva more trouble as she looked troubled enough at the moment. He can ask her later, he decided as he grabbed his jacket and said goodbye.

As soon as the front door shut Ziva went to help her brother and Shmuel clean up the house a little so that her father would not suspect that Ziva brought her friends into the house without his permission. When the house looked clean enough, Ziva headed upstairs for her room but Ari blocked her path.

"This was a really close call Ziva. Do you realize that if it was not for Shmuel, father would have caught you with inviting people over to the house without permission. You know how he feels about company when he is actually _in _the house, do you know how mad he would have been if he caught you with company while he was away?"

"But he did not, did he Ari?" Ziva responded flatly.

"Look I just do not want you to jeopartize your chance to stay here in America for your own sake. You love it here and you are bonding with your friends. You cannot risk to piss off father more than necessary and I am quite positive that he has already heard about your suspencion."

"Would you back off Ari? It is none of your business!" Ziva snapped.

"Ziva-" The surprised Ari tired to speak.

"Look, we are definitely not here because of the reason that we were told. The entire Rivkin and Rubinstein family are all joining us here and Tali as well. Ari you are not stupid, you know that they are forming a unit here and they somehow decided that they needed to bring their family along. And I am sure you are not unfamiliar with the ending of stories with these kind of missions, so stop pretending that we can still control the outcome here because we cannot! If we can stay, we stay, if we cannot, we leave. Simple as that!"

Ziva felt bad for lashing out at Ari but she needed to release her anger and Ari just happened to be her victim. Every since little, her father had taught her and her siblings to not trust anyone other than themselves and not get too close with anyone. She had always excelled at that. She had many friends in Tel Aviv but none of them got close enough to truly affect Ziva deeply if one day they were all gone from her life. She just assumed that the friends she made in DC was just another few to add to that list but it was not until she realized that this may be another one of those trip of her father's mission that would only last few months did she recognize her mistake. She had let these people get too close, especially Tony, and now she felt miserable when she found herself in a position where she might be forced to leave any second.

Before she think any further, she heard the lock turn. Both her and Ari turned and headed for the door where they were met by their father, Mr. Rivkin, and Mr. Rubinstein who acknowledged them with a nod. They were followed by Tali and Michael. As soon as Tali spotted her sister, she wrapped her around in her arms.

"Shalom Tali." Ziva said as Tali stopped hugging her as she caught her father glaring at her with disapproval at corner of her eyes.

"Shalom Ziva, Ari." Tali greeted back. "Where is Shmuel. You did not knock him out again Ziva did you?" She whispered the last part so that only Ziva could hear.

Ziva snickered as she answered. "No, no I would not do that again. He is-"

"Here." Shmuel finished himself as he came out of the kitchen. "Did you know that Ziva's falafel is really good?"

"Yes" Tali, Michael, and Ari answered at the same time.

"Good."

"Shalom Ziva." Michael smiled at her.

"Shalom Michael." She stepped forward and kissed him on the cheeks which Ari frowned at. When Ziva stepped back she gave him a little shove with the elbow that nobody would notice as a warning.

"I still do not trust him." Ari hissed at her low so that it could only reach Ziva's ears.

Before Ziva could hiss something back or seriosly elbow him in the gut, her father interrupted as the three male adults finished their own small conversation.

"Well it seems that the children are settling down well so why do we not move this conversation to the office so we can discuss business and they can talk without us." He suggested to the other two tall Mossad officers, which Ziva really wanted to roll her eyes at if she was not standing right in front of her father. He always made it seem like he cared about her and her siblings in front of other people but privately, he was not even close to be considered a caring father. _And children, he has not treated any of us like children since we could walk!_ she internally huffed, but kept it to that only.

"Yes we should." Michael's father agreed and Shmuel's father nodded in agreement as well.

As the two officers went into the office, Eli David stepped towards her daughter and hissed dangerously. "We will talk later."

Ziva had to bite her tongue really hard to keep herself from satisfying her irrational urge to respond with 'about what?' just to piss him off.

When he left Tali commented happily, "What are you frowning about Ziva? We get to go to school together again next fall when I would be in high school too. I know it has been barely two months, but I have really missed you, Ziva."

"Tali you cannot seriously believe that we would still be here in September. You know better than to believe that we can stay in one place that long when we are to 'accompany' father during his missions." Ziva said.

"What are you talking about Ziva? This is a long term thing. From what I heard we would definitely stay for a year maybe more.I do not know what exactly they are doing but they are definitely not doing the kind of missions you have in mind since Michael and Shmuel's families signed the lease contract for a twelve months for their apartment."

Ziva turned to the boys who both nodded backing up Tali's statement.

"We are going to be here for long term. Wait, do you hate it here? Is that why you're not happy which makes sense I guess becuase you looked pretty mad when Papa told you to come here." Tali said worriedly.

"No. No, it is the opposite actually. I like it here and I _know_ that you will love it here too Tali." Ziva smiled at her little sister knowing that the promise was not empty. For a sympathetic and peaceful person like Tali who is full of life, there would be no better place for her to be than in DC where she is far away from gunpowder and war. "Now I fell stupid about working myself down like that." Ziva sighed.

Tali narrowed her eyes for a moment before saying, "It not the expression work yourself up, not down?"

"Hey, unlike you I have more language to keep track off other than just Hebrew, Arabic, and English. I am sorry if I mess up every once in a while." Ziva defended herself. Usually she only messed up idioms on purpose to make Tony laugh but every once in a while when she did honestly made a mistake, she could not help but to use that excuse.

Tali chuckled in response and Michale and Shmuel followed. Even Ari smirked, so Ziva joined in too. She may still have to 'talk' with her father, Ziva was happy for the time being because she knew that she was going to enjoy the next year with her siblings and friends.

* * *

_Thanks for all those who reviewed and guessed who the man at the doorstep was the last time! But unfortunately none of you got it right, it was Shmuel Rubinstein (The boy that Ziva hit in her first fight when she as 8)! Okay, yeah I never expected anyone to guess that right so I'd say that you were close enough with Michael Rivkin since they're both teenage Israeli boys in my story. I promise I will update faster next time._

_TBC and please review  
_


	15. Draw the Curtain

Disclaimer: As much as I want to I do not own NCIS or any of its characters.

_I know I promised last time to update faster but it took me 2 weeks again. So I'll probably stop promising to update faster since I can't do it. I'll try to update more but usually I probably will only update once every 2 weeks, so please be patient. And thank you so much for all the reviews. You guys really made my day. Now on to the story..._

* * *

"Ziva?!"

"Huh?" Ziva almost jumped when Abby's voice drew her back into reality. Almost. But she was certainly startled.

"Haven't you been listening at all?" Abby asked her friend. When Ziva didn't answer she sighed and laid out her plan to throw Ducky a surprise party after the finals since he'd be leaving for Edinburgh soon. "So what do you think?"

"That is a great idea Abby. I am sure Ducky would love it." Ziva said as she sat down beside Abby when they reached their usual table in the cafeteria.

Abby smiled. When she spotted Michael entering the cafeteria, she waved at him. Ziva looked in amusement as Michael smiled and walked towards them. During the first few weeks after spring break, Michael generally kept his distance from Ziva, although whether he really wanted to or he was just afraid of what Ari would do if he got too close to her, she wasn't sure. But on the third week, they bumped into him when they were walking home after school and Abby started a conversation. It had taken Ziva three months to get Michael to even smile when they first met, but in less than few days Abby had gotten really close to Michael and he could not say no to her when she invited him to eat lunch with the group. Ziva was very surprised at how quick the two had became friends, but then again everybody loves Abby. And she got to admit Michael was fitting in quite nicely in the school so far.

"Shalom Abby, Ziva." He greeted when he arrived at the table.

"Hey Michael, how was your day?" Abby asked.

Michael opened his mouth to respond but Ziva did not hear rest of the conversation as her thought drifted back to what happened that morning. As she arrived for school, she caught something at the corner of her eyes. She really should not have turned to look but curiosity got the better of her and that was when she made her first mistake of the day. She found Tony and Jeanne 'making out' although she hardly understood how the action made out anything at the corner of the staircase. She did not mean to stare but it was too late as Jeanne narrowed her eyes at her. Ziva immediately turned and headed for class, which was her second wrong move of the day since Jeanne just so happened to be in her homeroom class. In middle of the class, she felt something hit her head, hard. The thing bounced off her head on to her desk. When she saw that it was a paper folded into a strip, she slowly unfolded it.

It read, _Stay away from him and don't ever let me catch you doing it again, bitch. _Ziva knew exactly who _him_ referred to and what _it _was, and she certainly did not need to look and see who pelted the piece of paper at her head. But she turned anyway to see Jeanne smirking dangerously at her. _She really does not know me does she,_ Ziva thought sourly because if it was any other circumstances, she would make Jeanne so afraid of her that she would be twitching every time Ziva even got within a hundred meter of her. But considering the fact that her friendship with Tony had just started to rebuild and she still did not explain everything to him, hurting his girlfriend hardly seemed like the best thing to do. Not to mention how it was less than a week since her father forgave her for the last fight that she was in which resulted in suspension. And he did not really forgave her, he just stopped locking her in her room. Of course the punishment was not that bad since he was not always home to make sure of that but still Ziva did not want to test his patience on the subject again. The best way to avoid punching a person is to get away from the as far as possible so that no matter how tempting it may seem, it is not possible to do so. With that in mind, Ziva asked to go to the bathroom when her teacher assigned independent work and did not go back to class until almost the end.

She was snapped back into reality for the second time in five minutes except this time instead of Abby's voice, it was a flying pencil case that brought her back. She rubbed her head where the pencil case landed.

"I'm so sorry... we were just fooling around... I did not mean to hit you Ziva." Janice Layton, a girl in Ziva's Spanish class apologized as she rushed to her when she realized that her pencil case made a landing on Ziva's head.

'It is alright. I am fine." Ziva said as she grabbed the pencil case and offered it to Janice.

"Sorry." She said again and she walked away.

"You okay?" Abby asked, but before Ziva could say 'I am fine' again, they were interrupted by Tony and Kate's arrival.

"Tony! Seriously what did you do with my phone?" Kate yelled.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I didn't take your phone!" Tony desperately answered.

"What happened?" Abby asked.

"This thing," Kate said as she pointed at Tony, "Took my phone and he won't give it back!"

"I did not!" Tony defended himself.

"Did too!"

"Did not!

"DID TOO!"

"DID-" Tony stopped mid-sentence when he felt someone slap his head. His head jerked forward in reflex and his forehead bumped into Kate's who had also been slapped on the back of her head. "What was that for?" They both asked in unison.

"For causing a scene!" Gibbs gritted through his teeth. Only then did the two realize that half of the cafeteria was staring at them. Then Gibbs slapped Tony again which caused him to glare at him incredulously with his mouth open as wide as a fish.

"Give her phone back, Tony."

"For the hundredth time, I don't have it!" Tony exclaimed again except this time he used physical gesture for emphasis. "I swear to God, I don't."

"Well I don't have it in my bag and I did when I was at my locker. You were the only one close enough to steal it."

"How do you know? You could have dropped it or maybe it's still in your bag!"

"Kate check your bag." Jenny suggested.

"I already did," Kate said but Jenny just looked at her, "Fine, I'll check again, but I'm telling you it's not-" She stopped her rumbling when she felt an object shaped like her phone inside her bag.

"Aha! It was in your bag!" Tony said in satisfaction.

Kate bit her lips before admitting, "Yeah, it was at the bottom and guess I missed it last time."

"And?" Tony looked at her expectantly.

"You were right," Kate unwillingly admitted, "I'm sorry for accusing you."

"Ah, it feels so good to be right," Tony smiled from ear to ear. "No wonder-"

Gibbs cut off his what was bound to be a long speech about some movie with a head slap and told him to sit down.

"So where's Ducky and McGoo?" Tony asked as he sat down.

"Ducky's sick today but I don't know where Timmy is. I saw him this morning and I can't find him and he's not returning my text." Abby answered.

"Eh don't worry. He's probably just talking with the Elf Lord Crew."

"Tony, it's called the gaming club not Elf Lord Crew. And stop calling Timmy Elf Lord!"

"Oh come on Abby! What kind of guy thinks that a level five sorceress is the perfect girl?" Tony laughed.

"You still haven't told Tim yet?" Ziva asked in shock.

"'Tell him what?" Everybody except for Gibbs and Michael asked.

"Nothing." Tony answered nervously.

"Tony! Tim still does not know that _you_ are the level five sorceress?"

"Hey! I tried to make him give up but he won't"

"I can't believe you would do that!" Kate paused and added, "Well I actually can, but still-"

"Okay! Okay! I'll tell him. I didn't think he'll get so ...man he really need a real girlfriend."

"Don't be so mean to him!" Abby punched Tony in the arms.

"Ow! Abby! He's not even here!" Tony complained as he rubbed his arms.

Everybody chuckled as Abby shook her head. Michael leaned towards Ziva and whispered, "What exactly is a level five sorceress?"

Just as she was ready to whisper her answer back, Ari suddenly appeared and his foot went around and kicked the leg of Michael's chair from inside causing him to lose balance and fall.

"I am sorry, I do not know what I was looking at. Are you alright Michael?" Ari asked but his voice was emotionless. Nobody was surprised since Ari never really showed emotions, but Ziva was far from happy. She dragged him outside the cafeteria forcefully leaving a table of people plus Shmuel confused.

"_What the hell was that?!" _Ziva hissed in Hebrew in case somebody was listening. "_I have told you before, I am fine with Michael, I do not see what your problem is."_

Ari shook his head in disapproval. He did not say anything but Ziva knew that he was referring to how close Michael was to her when he whispered.

_"He was asking a question. Stop being so paranoid." _Her hiss was so low that if Ari was not sure that Ziva would never seriously hurt him, he would have backed away. But since Ari knew that Ziva would not try to hurt him, he stood his ground.

"_I was just tying to protect you, Ziva._"

_"I do not need your protection! I can take care of myself!"_

_"You needed it the last time," _It was out of Ari's mouth before he could stop it and before he realized, he was continuing, "_If I did not arrive when I did last time you would not have walked away with just a black eye and a broken arm." _

Ziva narrowed her eyes. She could not believe that Ari would use that against when he knew exactly how much it hurt. She shook her head and turned towards the cafeteria.

"_Wait, Ziva! I'm s-" _Ari started but she opened the door and shut it in Ari's face without saying another word.

When she went back in, everyone stopped their own conversations and looked at her. Ziva simply asked Michael if he is alright and when he said that he was fine, she sat down beside him again. At the corner of her eyes she caught Shmuel leave through the door that she just came in from. When everybody around the table still looked at her curiously, she changed the subject.

"Abby, did you tell them about your plan?"

"Oh right! Hey guys, I was thinking about throwing Ducky a surprise party since he'll be graduating this year after the finals. Ziva's in, so how about you guys?"

Everybody agreed and they started to plan out the party for rest of the lunch, but Ziva did not hear anything they said. It was not that she did not want to pay attention, but she just could not bring herself to, not after what Ari said. After all those time, she thought that she had forgotten about the incident, and she did. But Ari just took her barely healed heart and ripped it apart, reopening her old wound again. Rest of the day passed her like a breeze. She paid no attention what so ever to what any of her teachers was saying and during PE she just ran as fast as she could causing her to almost vomit when she was done. Everybody in the class were astonished, but Tony was just worried.

"Hey Ziva!" Tony said as he got out of the change room and saw Ziva already changed and waiting for the final bell. "So...um... how was your day?"

"I am fine Tony." She simply stated.

"That's not what I asked." Tony responded.

"No it was not, but you were going to." Ziva turned and faced him.

Tony opened his mouth several times trying to think of a convincing denial, but none came to his mind. "Are you sure you're fine because at lunch-"

"Do you have a brother Tony?" Ziva asked.

"No."

"Well then let me tell you that they are very annoying and you fight with them a lot. Yes I had an argument with Ari today, but it is not large deal." Ziva said, wondering to herself why she said so much. She could have just repeated 'I am fine' over and over until he gave up or threatened him with bodily harm. It usually worked but for whatever reasons that she did not know herself, she felt like saying that.

"Big deal. It's big deal not large deal. Large deal is when-" He cut himself off and went on, 'It doesn't matter. You sure?" And when Ziva nodded and when the bell rang he said bye and left.

Ziva walked upstairs to where her locker was. When she turned the corner, she found Shmuel standing against it. She wanted to turn away and leave but he already saw her. She sighed and walked towards him since there was no way that she was going to ran away from anyone, especially not Shmuel Rubinstein.

"Shalom Shmuel." She greeted as she opened her locker.

"Shalom Ziva." He greeted back but Ziva continued to take her books from her locker. "Ari wanted to apologize to you."

Ziva laughed in a way that to her satisfaction made Shmuel flinch. "Oh and you are the messenger?"

Shmuel drew in a deep breath and said, "Look I know what he said was uncalled for and he really regrets it. but as emotionless and coldblooded as he is, he really cares about you, Ziva and you know that. He was just trying to protect you."

Ziva slammed her locker shut, ignoring all the heads turning and locked it in anger. "He was being paranoid!"

"He had his reasons." Shmuel reasoned.

"Stop being his sidekick." It was out of her mouth before she could stop it, but she did not really regret it since it was the truth. Unlike Michael, Shmuel did not really fit into the school. He just stuck with Ari and kept a distance from the other students since he arrived. He had good friends in Israel, but even then he usually just followed them around and never stood up for himself. It was mean but Ziva felt that she had no choice but to say it if she wanted him to back down without hurting him.

"I am not," Shmuel stated calmly but his inside was far from calm. _Are you crazy?_, he asked himself but he pushed it away, determined to stick up for his friend. "I agree with him. Now unlike him, I do not think that Michael is a bad guy. He is my friend too and I know that he did not mean for it to happen. But Ari is right when he wants him to keep his distance away from you. I know from a personal experience how bad Michael can be when he is drunk, and he will drink again sooner or later. What if you were around him then? Would you still feel safe around him as you do now? If Michael lost it on you once when he was drunk, he may very well lose it the second time and your brother just does not want to risk that. I respect your decision if you still want to be friends with Michael, but that does not mean that you cannot understand Ari's worry. Today was not all his fault and you know that. He just wanted to protect you Ziva, think about it before you blame him."

Ziva could do nothing more than to stare wide eyed at Shmuel as he turned and walked away. Her mouth was wide open like an idiot but she could not bring herself to close it. She was not capable of thinking anything other than the question _what has this world came to?_ She had fell for a boy that she met less than half a year ago. She has done nothing to let him know about how she feels. She was letting his girlfriend call her a bitch without a price. She had fought with her brother who had nothing but been supportive of her all her life. And now she was letting of all the people in the world Shmuel Rubinstein to lecture her. And the amazing thing was that she had nothing to say, to do, or to think after all that. She just stood dump founded in front of her locker as her world turned up side down around her. When she realized that the hallway was almost empty, she drew in a deep breath and grabbed her backpack. As she descended the stairs she checked her phone where she found ten unread text, and they were all from Abby. Only then did she realize that her friend was probably worried about why was not there yet. Abby was bound to ask her a lot of questions about why she stayed in the school for extra twenty minutes but she did not really care as she was more than ready to draw the curtain on the miserable day.

* * *

_TBC and please review._


	16. Desperate for an Answer

_I am so sorry that the update took this long. But I had been just busy and I had a minor writer's block. I had not idea what to do with this chapter. I did my best but it still doesn't feel really right to me. But I decided that it's a filler chapter mostly anyway so I just went with this idea. Anyway I hope it isn't too bad._

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS

* * *

"Well, well, well, if it isn't little McBusy himself." Tony said as Tim joined them at the lunch table for the first time for the past two weeks. "What? The Elf Lord Crew finally let you go?"

"No," Tim started confidently which made Tony quirk his eyebrows. Tim never answered back like that before, ever, "I was working on a project with my partner."

"With who?" Tony asked teasingly.

"Lucy Augustine."

"Woo, a girlfriend?" Tony asked pulling a chair near McGee and sitting down ignoring his protests, "Our little McGoo is growing up. Got any pics? Did you reach-" Tony stopped asking questions when somebody pushed him from behind and his sandwich fell onto the ground.

"Stop harassing Tim, Tony. Not everybody's like you. He doesn't need to brag about every single detail about his relationships, right Tim?" Kate told him off.

"Actually, Kate, Lucy and I are just friends." McGee confessed, looking embarrassed from the conversation.

"My sandwich is on the ground all for 'just friends'?" Tony complained.

"Stop whining Tony."

"Easy for you to say Kate. Your lunch isn't on the ground."

"Buy another one. Here," Kate offered Tony five bucks, "You can use mine since it was sort of my fault even though you deserved it."

"But they don't have ham salad one in the caf." Tony whined.

"Fine." Kate said as she put her five bucks back into her wallet.

"Hey, I didn't say no." Tony protested as he grabbed Kate's five buck and headed for the caf.

Kate rolled her eyes and sat down at the table just as Jenny and Gibbs arrived with coffee in their hands

"Hey Kate and Tim. I haven't seen you for a while." Jenny asked.

"I was um working on my business project." McGee answered.

Before Jenny could comment on that, Abby joined them around the table.

"Timmy! Where have been all these days?" Abby asked as she lightly punched Tim.

Tim immediately cuddled his arms and started rubbing while commenting, "Abby! That hurts!"

But Abby ignored it and continued on, "We missed you Timmy. And you missed a lot."

For rest of the lunch Abby caught Tim up with everything that he missed the last two weeks. And everything with Abby literally meant _everything. _By the end, Tim would have sworn that if Abby said one more word, he'd have gone mad. But thankfully, Tony interrupted Abby's long _long_ story.

"Hey Abs, where's Ziva?"

"Oh, yeah, she's preparing for her History final project." Abby answered.

"What is it with everyone these days? They're all either doing this project or that project. Doesn't anybody understand the meaning of lunch _break_ anymore?" Tony shook his head.

"Yeah well unlike you Tony, some of us actually want to pass our classes." Kate commented from across the table.

"Believe it or not Kate, I _do _pass my classes." Tony fired back.

"Barely." Kate added. Tony was not dumb, in fact to be truthful, he was really smart. But he was such an idiot sometimes that Kate often wonder if there's something seriously wrong with the guy's brain. Of course the answer would be no, but Tony was so immature that she sometimes felt like she was talking to a five year old instead of fifteen.

Tony laughed alongside his friends at that. Despite the happy mood though, he couldn't help himself but to feel the anxiety that he was feeling deep down in his gut. Then he internally chuckled, he wasn't Gibbs, he didn't have a gut. And if he did, it was usually wrong so he pushed the feeling aside and focused on something more important like trying to come up with another McNickname.

* * *

Ziva sunk to her chair in front of the library computer in defeat. She was completely dumbfounded. She had no idea what in the world she was supposed to do now. The librarian has kicked her project partner out. _Great,_ she thought to herself sarcastically.

She and Michael was just trying to put their project together for their presentation they had right after lunch. But as usual with her these days, something had gone wrong. Michael just happened to forget his student card so they had to use her card instead even though all their work was on Michael's account. They signed in and started to work on it. It was quite for maybe five minutes and then the librarian came and started to give them this whole big lecture about not using other people's card to sign in.

She had no idea why the librarian made such a big deal out of it but Michael was locked out of the computer for a week and kicked out of the library so she was alone. And things just got worst. She accidentally closed Michael's stuff that he sent to himself on the e-mail which he logged out of just before he left. So she left the computer and went looking for Michael but she could not find him anywhere. She glanced at the caf, his locker, her locker, the front foyer, the office, and any other place she could think of but she could not find her partner.

Now, she sat in front of a library computer completely lost. After another few minutes of sighing to herself, she decided to finish as much of the project as she can. Even if she could only put together half of the presentation, it was still better than nothing. She set herself to work and started to typed intensely.

When she realized that there was not much she could do anymore without Michael, she logged off and packed to leave. She stood and as she put her backpack on she accidentally bumped into a girl. She had good enough reflex to avoid the collision had the girl been standing alone instead of being surrounded by five other girls forming a human wall.

When Ziva lifted her head up to apologize, she saw who she had collided into. _Why in the fucking world is she here?_, she thought to herself. Her day just was not getting better, at all.

"Watch where you are going you-" The girl started but stopped herself when she saw Ziva. "Well, well, well, it seems that you just don't understand the concept of 'get out of my face'."

Ziva opened her mouth ready to shoot something back but though better of it. The girl smiled at that.

"What? Don't know what to say? I though terrorists always know what to say."

"Sheket Bevakasha" Ziva spit.

"What? Is that supposed to be a code or something to your other little terrorist friends?" Jeanne and her group laughed.

"It is Hebrew for shut up."

"What, can't swear in English properly? And by the way, has nobody taught you how to use contractions?"

Ziva finally had enough. "See if I were to swear in English, my fist would have to accompany my words. Now I do not want to hurt my friend, well you are not my friend but you are my friend's girlfriend so in the end it is the same thing. My instincts however is not so... reasonable if you will."

Jeanne and Ziva glared at each other for several minutes before Jeanne spoke, "It that supposed to be a threat?"

"See it as whatever you like." Ziva shrugged. When the bell rang, she whispered to Jeanne on her way out "Just know that my patience is running out."

----------------

"Hey Timmy!" Abby waved from the bleachers.

"Hey Abs!" Tim waved back as he walked towards her. "Where's everybody else?"

"Tim, the bell rang twenty minutes ago. They left." Abby said like it was common knowledge.

"Oh," Tim said as he glanced at his watch, "Then what are still doing here."

"Eh, I don't know? Waiting for you and Ziva?" She commented sarcastically.

"Well, you didn't have to wait."

"I know, but me and Ziva planned to plan for Ducky's surprise party. Which she is almost half an hour late for."

"Ok, well I um have to-" Before he could finish he saw Abby's pout.

"Timmy! Come on you're already here and I don't know when she's gonna show up so can't you wait with me. I'd be all alone if you go and besides you should plan with us, it'll be fun."

"Abby." Timmy complained but rested her case since he knew he could never bring himself to say no to his best friend, "Fine, I'll stay."

After listening to two songs from Abby's iPod, Ziva finally appeared.

"Sorry I am late."

"Where were you Ziva? We waited for half an hour. Well _I _waited for half an hour since Tim jsut arrived ten minutes ago. But still, I was worried about you Ziva. I swear if you didn't came when you did I was about to put out a BOLO on you." Abby sputtered.

"A BOLO?" Ziva frowned in confusion.

"Be On The Look Out." Tim explained for Abby as she tried to catch her breath. "Seriously, where were you, Ziva?"

"I had to sort something out with a teacher. It does not matter."

Abby and Tim was about to insist but when they saw that Ziva had put on her no-expression face, they realized that she wasn't going to budge. So Abby changed the subject. "We're going to your place to plan right?"

"Yeah." Ziva smiled but it was not hard for Abby and Tim to see that it was forced. They had a feeling that something was wrong with their friend but didn't want to piss her off since that could get ugly. So they just started to walk home.

When they reached the intersection where Tim and Ziva's house go separate ways, they stopped to say bye to Tim.

"You sure you don't wanna come?" Abby pouted, "Come on Tim, we won't tell Tony, right Ziva?"

"Abby, I promised Sarah to help her with her science today."

"Fine, bye Tim."

"See you tomorrow Tim."

"Bye."

After another three minutes, they were at Ziva's front porch. They rang the bell and a girl that Abby did not know opened the door.

"Finally you're home Ziva. Ari has been waiting for you."

Ziva shook her head. Ari has been very bossy ever since Michael has moved to the neighborhood and she was getting really tired of him poking his nose into her business all the time. She sighed and told Tali she would talk to him later. When she looked at Abby she realized that Tali and her had never met before.

"Abby, this is Tali my sister. Tali, this is my friend Abby." She introduced them and the two girls said hi.

From the corner of her eyes, Ziva saw Ari descending the stairs. She turned to him and when their eyes met she noticed that his were filled with disapproval and hate.

"What Ari?" Ziva asked, her tone a little more hostile than she originally intended.

"Michael called," He paused but Ziva did not say anything and just waited, "He said something about meeting you at the library at six tonight."

Ziva nodded and turned to Abby who was observing silently. When she felt Ari's gaze still on the back of her head she turned and added, "Thank you for taking the message Ari."

"Are you going?"

"Yes, we are working on a project." Ziva answered carefully with every single word measured to keep to temper.

"Did you tell father?" Ari asked just as calm.

"When is he ever home? And if he is you would inform him, no?"

Ari nodded and headed back to his room without furthering the discussion because he knew it would probably end up in a yelling match. He did not want to lose his temper in front of Ziva's friend and he was also tired of fighting over this subject. _Why can Ziva not stay away from that bastard. Can she not see what I see? He is a maniac._

"Sorry Abby. Just ignore him." Ziva apologized when she turned to her friend, "Want to go to my room? My computer is there."

"Yeah sure."

By the end of two hours, they had decided they wanted to keep the party small so that they could all focus on making it the best party Ducky has ever been to. But they still had not chosen where to throw the party at. They were torn between watching one of Tony's movie at one of the person's house or just head to a bowling alley. They decided that it could wait and the invite list and the gift was more important at the moment. They had decided on asking everyone to chip in a little so that they had enough money to buy Ducky a really decent gift.

Right before Abby left they had decided the split the call list in half, with both of them calling half of the group to inform them about what they had decided. Ziva had Jenny and Kate while Abby phoned Gibbs, Tim, and Tony.

Abby's call to Gibbs and Tim went great, probably because both of them just agreed to everything she said and didn't add anything. Not that she expected them to add anything to begin with. It was Tony's call that Abby was sort of worried about. She loved Tony and all, but his girlfriend, Jeanne was a real problem.

Everybody in the group hates her and they all could see how annoying she is, except for Tony. Although Jeanne was nice to Abby personally, she still didn't like her, especially the way she treated Ziva. As she dialed Tony's number, she crossed her fingers for him not to bring up inviting Jeanne. But just as usual when someone wishes for something not to happen, it happens.

"Hey Abs. You said that we could invite our other friends right?" Abby shut her eyes wishing the next se4ntence for something other than what she was thinking about, "Can I bring Jeanne."

Abby sighed. "Why? Can we talk about that later?"

"Well, she's my girlfriend Abby." Tony said from the other side of the phone, "You like her."

When Abby didn't answer immediately Tony continued, "Wait, you like her right? You don't like Jeanne? Why, she's nice to you Abby."

"Well yeah she's nice to me and I don't dislike her." Abby explained as she heard Tony's hurt tone.

"Well then what's the problem?"

Abby sighed heavily but continued anyway because she really wanted Tony to open his eyes to what Jeanne was doing. "She's nice to me Tony, but haven't you realized that she's really mean to some of our other friends?"

"Who? Jeanne is a nice person. Don't talk about her like this Abby. And tell whoever you told you that to zip their mouths because they have no idea who they're talking about."

"Tony, can't you just see that-" Abby started but Tony cut him off.

"You know what Abs, stop! Seriously, stop, okay? If you can't give my girlfriend even the slightest respect, then maybe you aren't a good friend because I know she would support me instead of talking like this."

"What?" Abby asked feeling really hurt.

"W-sorry Abby, that's not what I meant. You're right, we should talk about this later."

"Tony-" Abby started but he had already hung up.

She closed her phone and sighed again. She had never fought with Tony before and she felt really guilty for saying that. But at the same time she was mad at Tony too. Everybody in the school knows how mean Jeanne had been to Ziva and it was amazing that Ziva had been able to keep her temper all this time. If it was Abby, she'd have already punched her in the face and if she had Ziva's skills, there'd be no tell what she would have done. Tony was apparently 'blinded by love' and couldn't see it, which was really starting to tick Abby off. As much as she loved Tony she could not let him bring Jeanne to the party since she knew it would destroy everybody's mood including Ducky. Even the sweet Ducky felt uncomfortable around Jeanne. But if she doesn't let her in then Tony would be really hurt. To let or not let her in. The question was hurting Abby's head and she hated it. It was destroying her fun on party planning which had gone perfectly up until that point. And it had totally killed Abby's happy mood She turned on her music to the loudest volume it can go to and buried her head in her arms desperate for an answer.

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_Btw I'm not sure if you use your student cards at your school library, but we do in our school and that did happen to me this week which was one of the reason that made my life miserable this week. Just an explanation if anybody's confused by that part. Anyway..._

_TBC and please review  
_


	17. Trust Me, You Don't Want Me to Choose

Disclaimer: No surprise here- I don't own NCIS

_I cannot even begin to say how sorry I am for taking soo long with this chapter. There's absolutely no excuse for me whatsoever for taking this long. And thank you for those of you who reviewed on last chapter and gave me suggestion on how to improve. Hopefully you haven't given up on this story yet and I hope that this chapter isn't too disappointing for your wait. Again I'm so sorry, I definitely _will_ get better at updating faster._

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Ever since planning the basic skeleton of Ducky's surprise good bye party back at Ziva's house, Abby had kept herself busy working on the details of the party. Despite the little obstacles here and there, all in all, things went quite well. However there were still some things that she needed to sort out with rest of the group. But of course with Ducky right in front of them, there was no way Abby could get anything done, so today she had asked Jenny to drag Ducky out of the cafeteria. Abby promised to fill Jenny in on the plan afterwards. It was already half way into the lunch hours so everybody was done eating and was just chitchatting amongst themselves. Abby caught Jenny's eyes and nodded.

"Hey Ducky, could you help me with a science problem? I'm studying for the exam and I don't really get this part." Jenny said as she bent down to open her backpack for her science book. She was just slowly reaching for her books for the first ten seconds and then she started to frantically search for something in her bag. She looked up with a sad face and asked out loud, "Where's my science textbook? You know what Ducky, I probably forgot it in my locker. Do you mind coming up stairs with me? I could just ask you the questions there."

"Not a problem Jenny, I need to move around more. I'm so stressed with the exams and stuff I barely ever leaves my desk! I know that it's..." Everybody could still hear Ducky babbling about something when he and Jenny reached the cafeteria doors. They couldn't make out what he was saying but they got a feeling that he probably was telling another one of his stories.

"Okay guys! We're only few days away from exams. Do you know what that means? It means that we've only got little over a week to prepare for Ducky's party. We have so much that we need to do. We haven't even figured out where the party's going to be. We have absolutely no idea what present to Ducky, which by the way no one has given me the ten dollars they were supposed to chip in. Plus we have to inform everybody on the invite list after we figure it out and everybody's so busy these days..." Abby started to say speedily without stopping at all.

"Hey Abs, we get the point. Take a deep breath." Gibbs took a deep breath and gestured Abby to follow him.

After taking a couple of deep breath in and out with Gibbs, Abby calmed down and continued, "Like I said we have a lot to do and we obviously can't do it in front of Ducky so I asked Jenny to distract him for a while today. That gives us rest of the lunch to plan rest of the things out so we could get everything ready."

Everybody nodded and mumbled few 'okay's and 'sure's but nobody actually started to work. Seeing that nobody was moving Abby looked at them in disbelief and said, "Eh...guys? What are you waiting for? Let's get working!"

The others looked at each other trying to figure out who would have to tell Abby. When nobody seemed to be exactly keen on doing so, Ziva decided to say it herself. "Um Abby, sorry but um... we thought that you planned everything out and um...well the thing is that the rest of us have no idea what is going on."

There was a few seconds of pause before realization hit Abby. She had practically volunteered herself for every task when they decided to split the tasks. She chuckled nervously before admitting, "Yeah, guess it was too much for me to handle all by myself."

"It's alright Abby. What can we do to help?" Kate asked.

"Well, to begin with we have to decide what present to give Ducky. With everybody chipping in we could get him a really decent gift but I can't decide what he'd like the most. And it's Ducky. He's so sweet and I just want to give him the best present ever before he goes away. I think that it'd be the best if we all go shopping and decide as a group so I was wondering if everyone's free this weekend."

"That's a great idea Abby. While we're at it we could get the supplies for everything else too."

Abby looked around and everybody nodded. Well, that's everybody but Tim.

"I'm sort of busy this weekend with studying," Tim answered Abby's unsaid question.

"Tim!" Abby exclaimed, disappointed that Tim wouldn't spare a couple of hours to shop for one of his best friends who's going to go half way across the world. But most of all, she was disappointed that Tony who sat at corner of the desk hadn't said a single word since Ducky had left. They still haven't technically made up from their fight over what she said about Jeanne. The very next day she came to school, she was really worried that Tony would still be mad at her but he just pretended nothing happened in front of everyone and was being himself. But when they were alone, well that was a whole other situation. They used to joke around so much but for the past week or so they had been so awkward and that got Abby worried. Now, she's even more worried because Tony didn't even tease Tim about studying during the weekend. It was not that she wanted Tony to make fun of Tim but it's what he does and he's not doing it!

While Abby was worrying about how to fix her problem with Tony, she looked really angry and that made Tim very nervous. He assumed that she was mad at him so he explained himself nervously, "Abby it's not that I don't want to go it's just that I promised to help Ducky with his final computer project and in turn he promised to help me with my essay. Besides we couldn't leave Ducky out of our weekend plan if everybody was going in the first place. He might get suspicious or worse feel that we didn't want him to come. So I think it's a good idea that I stay with Ducky while you guys go shop."

"Why didn't you just make that clear the first time?" Abby complained

"Well..." He started to say but Abby just waved him off.

"So this Saturday around two at the mall?" Abby asked and the others nodded in agreement.

"Abby, have you decided where we are having the party?" Ziva asked.

"Yeah. I figured that since it's the last time we're all going to be together it would be better to just hang out, watch a movie and order pizza at someone's place rather than to go to a bowling alley. I asked Jenny and she said her father's going away next week so we can have the party at her place."

"Hmm, her father's not going to be home... so no adults?" Tony asked mischievously.

"Don't even think about it Tony!"

"Hey I haven't said anything yet Kate!" Tony defended.

"But you were gonna!" Kate fired back.

"Gonna what Kate? What did you even have in mind? You know maybe it's _you_ who has problems since you're jumping to conclusions so fast!" Tony said pushing his chair back and standing up, leaning closer to Kate who was standing across the table.

"Enough!" Gibbs complained, "Don't you guys ever get tired of bickering so much?"

"Sorry." Both of them apologized and sat back down. Gibbs sighed while Tim, Ziva and Abby couldn't help but chuckle.

"Well, whatever you had in mind Tony, you probably shouldn't do it." Tim said once he stopped chuckling.

"What do I have in mind?" Tony asked incredulously.

"I'm sure whatever it was, it either had something to do with girls or alcohol." Ziva commented still chuckling.

"Why would you assume that? I might have been referring to bringing an R-rated movie or something else." Tony defended himself realizing that everybody was against him.

"Well, it obviously had something to do with girls because... well you are you." Ziva stated matter-of-factly and Kate agreed.

"And Tony? Unsupervised house, party, and access to alcohol? Even a 5 year old knows what that adds up to in the DiNozzo mind." Gibbs added.

At that, everybody, including Tony couldn't help but to laugh. "Ok fine, you caught me," Tony joked, "I was just joking. I would never try to make a mess at Ducky's good-bye party."

Everybody laughed and started to get off topic.

"Hey Tony, could you bring in couple of movies?" Abby asked. bring everybody back on topic again..

"Sure thing. That's what I usually do anyways." Tony replied.

"That's usually _all_ you do." Kate teased.

"I am curious though. How big is your movie collection? Clearly, you never ran out of movies to talk about and as far as I know you never showed us the same movie more than once." Ziva asked.

"Oh, his collection is _huge_." Abby answered for Tony.

Before he could comment on that Kate added, "Beyond huge. I don't think even Tony knows how many he has. Of course, over half of the classics are his dad's, but still, it's a huge pile," Then she turned to Tony, "Movies seems to be the only thing that you enjoy more than stealing the Playboys from your dad."

Tony fake gasped, "Kate! What makes you think that I look at Playboys. I would _never_-

"Oh please Tony! Jeanne is not here right now. You don't need to pretend." Kate cut him off.

Tony slowly turned his head to check if Kate was telling the truth and when he saw that it was he let out a breath of relief. "I do have other hobbies too. I mean I can't live without basketball, football, or video games. Anyways, after that stunt you pulled on me with my last girlfriend, can you blame me that I would rather be safe than sorry?"

"Tony, like I've told you in the every single one of the hundreds of times that I've apologized to you about that, I didn't know she was right behind us!"

"I know, but still, just in case. Besides, one of her friends could have been around too."

"What?" A very confused Ziva asked. Nobody seemed to be eager to answer and when her eyes met Gibbs', his only response was shaking his head while trying to hide a smirk. Ziva decided that he was right. It was probably one of those incidents that she was better off not knowing. So she changed the subject by asking, "Abby, do you have the invite list done? It would help to know how many people are going to be there when we shop."

"That's true,-", before Tim could finish his thought, Tony suddenly stood up in a hurry and everybody, even Gibbs and Ziva jumped slightly.

"What's wrong?" Tim asked.

"The list... of course the list! I totally forgot. Sorry guys, I have to go." Tony said and dashed out of the cafeteria without a further explanation.

Everybody but one person was extremely confused by the exit. Everybody but Abby. She was convinced that it had something to do with her refusing to let Tony bring Jeanne to the party. She had been so focused on the matter that week that she didn't stop to consider if it even made sense or not in this particular situation. All she knew was that Tony ran off as soon as the invite list came up and she felt that he was upset. She had been pushing off dealing with this the whole week and realized that she couldn't push off anymore. So she too, stood up and ran out the cafeteria trying to catch up with Tony.

The four people still at the table was now officially completely shocked. Kate and Tim had their mouths hang wide open and Gibbs and Ziva was frowning at the confusing turning of events.

While outside the cafeteria, Abby finally caught up with Tony. Well, not really. Tony was way faster than Abby and if he had been running the whole time there would have been no way Abby could have caught up. However Tony was currently at his locker flipping for something so Abby was able to find him.

"Tony, I-" Abby started.

"What are you doing here Abby?" Tony turned to her, surprised that she followed him out.

"I'm so sorry-" Abby continued, ignoring Tony's question.

"What are you talking about?" The even more confused Tony asked but Abby just kept rumbling on.

"You know this is why I hate fighting with my friends! It's so awkward and I miss joking with you Tony! I shouldn't have been so mean to you about Jeanne. If you want her to come-"

That was when the pieces fit together in Tony's mind. Abby was apparently still worried about what happened the week before. He grabbed hold of Abby's shoulders and shook her a little until she stopped and looked at him. "Abs, are you talking about what I said to you last week over the phone? I totally forgot about it. It really doesn't matter and the truth is it was me who was being a jerk. Your were right. It's going to be the last time that we're all together and it should be just Ducky's closest friends that actually go. But you were kinda mean about Jeanne so we could say that we're even. Alright? No need to apologize; besides it's a sign of weakness remember?" Tony said while flashing his irresistible grin to try to cheer Abby up.

Abby relaxed realizing that Tony's behaviour really had nothing to do with her. Then a question popped up in her head, "If it wasn't about the invite list, why would you have-"

"Ran off like that?" Tony finished the question for her, "Yeah sorry about that Abs. It's just that it got me thinking and I remembered that I was supposed to get a list to my coach today. And I can't seem to find it and therefore the mess" Tony explained pointing to his locker which was in fact quite messy.

"Oops. Guess I jumped to conclusions huh? You need help?" Abby asked.

"Uh, no thanks. I got it covered." Tony replied.

"Ok, see ya later. I better get back before they get freaked out."

"See ya!" Tony said as Abby left. He turned back to his locker to continue his search. After a minute or two he finally found the piece of paper he was looking for. He put or rather shoved everything back into his locker. He closed his locker and just as he was about to lock it somebody behind him covered his eyes.

"Guess who?"

Tony smiled realizing who it was. He pushed off her hands and turned around to land a light kiss on her cheeks. "Hey Jeanne."

"Hi sweetie." Jeanne said as she hugged Tony.

"Where were you today? I didn't see you in class or at the caf today." Tony asked.

"Dentist appointment." She explained.

"Why didn't you just skip the whole day?" Tony asked.

"That's what you would have done Tony, not me. Besides, I couldn't stand the idea of not seeing you today so I'm willing to do anything even if it involved coming to school."

Tony grinned. Then Jeanne asked, "What are you doing here anyways?" referring to the empty hallway.

"Oh, I was just getting some stuff for my basketball coach." Tony answered.

"Ok, hey Tony you know about the party on the 13th? I was wondering whether we would meet up and go together or just meet at the house."

"Oh yeah, about Ducky's party. I'm sorry but we sort of want to keep it to close friend only since it's Ducky's last week and we really want to make good use of the time so we can't bring guests." Tony lied to Jeanne. He didn't really need to lie but he also didn't really want to say it to her face that his friends don't want her there either. So he lied about the no guests part.

"Ducky? What are you talking about? I was talking about Dan's party on the 13th." Jeanne said confused.

"Oh! Well I didn't really look closely on the invitation. Ducky's party's on the 13th too." Tony said worriedly.

"Yeah, but you're still going to go to Dan's party with me right?" Jeanne asked slowly.

Tony frowned. "What? Jeanne, Ducky's been one of my best friends since elementary school. He's been a real good big brother to us all and he's leaving now. I can't just not go to his going away party."

"But Tony! It's going to be _the_ party of the year. You can't just pass up that opportunity either. Do you know what some people are doing just to get an invitation? Besides, Dan's one of your buddies he'll want you to be there." Jeanne complained, not believing that her boyfriend would even consider not going to _the_ party of the year just for one of his pathetic friend's so called 'party'. Of course she would never say that to him out loud because he's for some reason very protective of them.

"Dan is one of my buddies but Ducky's my best friend. Sorry but I can't go."

Jeanne gave a fake laugh as she shook her head. "Are you really not going to Dan's party for-" She cut her self off and took a deep breath and continued sweetly. "Tony, I don't think you get the big picture here. All the kids who _matter_ are gonna be there. You can get together with your friends any time you want and besides it's not as if you're not going to see Ducky for the rest of your life."

"Look Jeanne, I don't care about all that okay? I have to, no, I _want_ to go to Ducky's party." Tony explained after taking one of his own deep breaths to try and calm himself down.

"Tony, why are you so stubborn! I'm think of who's gonna be there. All the sports teams, cheerleaders, and the rich kids are going to Dan's party. Compared that your 'party'. I bet only the gang's going. I mean you'd really rather spend more time with Ziva and what's his name McGeek than me and your buddies?" Jeanne said, no longer so sweetly.

"It's McGee" Tony said through his clenched teeth. Even though he was the one that came up with McNicknames, he really didn't like it when people outside the group used it, especially the offensive ones.

"Whatever! They're all fricking geeky los-" Jeanne caught herself saying what she really thought about his friends without processing it through her brains first. Although the particular word 'losers' didn't come out of her mouth, she could see clearly on Tony's face that he knew what she meant. And he was mad.

Tony slammed his lock on his locker. He took several deep breaths but it wasn't helping much. "Look Jeanne, I think it would be a good idea for both of us to calm down a little, okay? We all said things that we probably didn't mean and let's just cool off for a while think about it."

"So you're going to consider Dan's invitation?" Jeanne asked inconsiderately.

"No! It doesn't matter what you say Jeanne. You can't convince me to not go to Ducky's party." Tony said no longer able to contain his voice at a normal level.

"So you're going to make me go to the party alone!?" Jeanne yelled back.

Realizing that yelling in a public hallway is a bad idea Tony tried to calm his girlfriend down. "Look I'm sorry alright? You have your best friends going too."

"What's it going to look like if my boyfriend's not there? You're choosing more than a party. It's not just Dan's party or Ducky's party. It's your friends at Dan's party or your friends at Ducky's party."

Tony back away, not believing at all that Jeanne was actually suggesting this. "This isn't about choosing between friends. It _is _just a party. Now I have to get this paper-" Tony said holding out his paper "-to Coach Johnson. In the meantime think about whether you really want to make it about choosing between you or my friends. And trust me when I say this, you _don't_ want me to choose."

And with that Tony left for the gym, leaving Jeanne in the hallway with her mouth wide open in disbelief.

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TBC and review is much appreciated.


	18. Sour Revenge

Disclaimer: IN the 6 months of inactivity, I still wasn't able to obtain NCIS. It still belongs to CBS along with all its characters.

_I'm really sorry for not updating for ever. I'm really grateful for those who stuck with this story. And the reviews always helped. But really I just found it hard to continue. I was never satisfied with this chapter but I really needed to add it to go on with the story. So please if this chapter sucks, I'm really sorry. But I'm sure you don't want to read excuses so here's chapter 18 (finally):_

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When Jeanne arrived at school on Monday morning for her history exam, she was felling well, pissed. A lot of things contributed to that anger. The biggest factor being the fight she had with Tony on Friday. She could not believe Tony would just leave her hanging like that. _In public_. Although not a lot of people actually saw them fight, words gets spread around fast. So by middle of the afternoon basically everybody around the school had heard about it. And the wider the words spread, the more unrealistic stories became. She knew how ridiculous a rumored story could get as it transfers from one person to the other. Everyone would fix the stories a little to make it interesting, or it could be a simple misunderstanding.

Like last week with Marie. She simply asked Jack, the biggest nerd of the school for his homework. She said she wanted to check if her answers were right but really she just wanted to copy them. But the idiot didn't get the hint so he kept harassing her to explain the questions if she got them wrong. A scene like that in middle of the cafeteria spread faster than a disease. By the end of the week, in everybody's eyes, Marie wanted to marry the guy. Deep down, nobody really believed rumors like that, but come on, it was high school, there was nothing like a good rumor to spice up the boring classes. At least that was what Jeanne told herself when she 'accidentally' spilled that Marie once told her that she had a crush on Jack. Of course she also told her that she was in the second grade and she thought it was the stupidest thing she had ever done, but Jeanne left that part out 'cause if she didn't where would the fun be. She regretted it once the rumor got so big, but some part of her still couldn't stop laughing every time she thought of Marie's face when she found of about the story.

Anyway the point was that when she walked down the hallway on Monday, she couldn't stand how everybody who walked by her was whispering and talking behind her back. For the first time in her life, she understood when people said that rumors are not so funny when they're about you. She tried glaring at some of them but it didn't seem to work all that well.

To top things off, Tony didn't even call her once during the weekend. The least he could do was to apologize, but no. Not a single visit, call, or even so much as a text. It was when she noticed that some of the nerds were looking at her judgmentally that she literally couldn't take it anymore. Jeanne decided to take revenge into her own hands. If Tony didn't want to come to Dan's party, fine, she would just have to make sure that nothing goes according to plan at he and his so called 'friends' party.

She didn't have anything personal against Ducky really, he didn't even know him, but it was the only way she could think of to get back at Tony. So when she spotted him walking out of room after the exam, she ran up to him and said "Hey Ducky!"

"Oh, hi Jeanne. I haven't seen you in a while. How did your first exam go?" Ducky asked politely.

"I think pretty good. How did yours go?"

"Well, to tell you the truth…" That was all Jeanne heard as Ducky went on about it and probably continued on to a story this reminded him about. She tried to be polite and at least wait until he was done but he was just not stopping and it was really ticking her off.

"Ducky, while I'd love to hear the end of this lovely story of yours, I really have to go. I just happened to see you when you walked out and I just wanted to say congratulations on your university acceptance and I'll really miss you next year. But unfortunately I'm going to have to miss your party since I already have plans on the 13th. Sorry, I really wanted to go and I didn't even chip in for the present." Jeanne said with a fake sad face.

Ducky was slightly stunned at first to respond but eventually he said, "No worries. Your congratulation is enough" He knew, despite his friends' best efforts, that they were preparing a surprise good bye party for him. He was pretending that he had absolutely no clue but this was unexpected. If they had planned this, he was really impressed because he was surprised that they purposely ruined the 'surprise' of the surprise party. But he had a feeling that this was more of a personal way for Jeanne to get back at Tony for the Friday fight incident. Even he had heard about the rumors going around the school. And his suspicion was confirmed when Jeanne went on to spoil more of his friends' plans.

"And it's going to be a good present too. A historical tea set. They all chipped in to get you a really decent gift. And they decided it to be a movie and pizza kind of thing so that you all get to hang out. It's so well planned. Abby should consider being a party planner when she grows up. To top it off it's going to be a surprise party…oops guess I forgot about that part." Jeanne said with her best innocent face.

"It's alright. I'm sure you did not mean to do it on purpose. Now I could help them plan this." Ducky said politely even though it was a huge lie just like Jeanne's last party of her ramble but it was the gentleman thing to do.

"Thanks Ducky! I'm really sorry about this"

"Don't worry about it." He reassured her.

"If you are sure…ok I have to go. Bye Ducky!" Jeanne turned around with a huge smirk on her face. Although she had to admit it was an immature thing to do but it did make her feel slightly better as she walked away smugly.

At noon, when Ducky met with the group for lunch, he was lost as to what he should do. He didn't know whether he should tell his friends that he knows or just pretend that he still doesn't know. He should be telling to truth but he had a feeling that Tony was not going to take the news well that his girlfriend spoiled the plan. Although he was really curious as to that tea set but still he knew how much effort Abby and everybody else had put into it and it would be cruel of him to ruin that. He could still pretend that he didn't know anything. Yes, he was going to pretend to the end.

"Hey Ducky!" Abby greeted him excitedly as usual when she saw him join them at their table. "Finally I'm done my first exam. 7 more to go! Wow that seems a lot. I mean. I always-"

"Abby, how many Caf-pows did you have today? You are too hyper even for you." Kate asked

"Not much. Just like four!" Abby replied still not sitting down as she walked back and forth clearly having a lot of extra energy to spare from over drinking caffeine.

"Four! Abby! That is way too much for you to have! It's barely into the afternoon!" Kate exclaimed.

"It's really not that much. Considering how much pressure I've been under lately. It just helps me to keep my head in the game," Abby defended herself. "Anyway where are Tony and Ziva and Gibbs and Jenny?"

"I don't know where Gibb went but I do know that Jenny had some family thing to do so she couldn't come to the mall." Ziva said.

"Oh and Tony called and said he was with Jeanne." Tim added.

"Erg! I really don't like her. It's not that I don't want Tony to be happy or anything. I do! I mean he's my friend and all but still Jeanne! She's so mean to everybody!" Abby ranted.

"Not everyone." Tim tried to defend Tony's girlfriend a little.

"Timmy! Of all the people to say that! Don't you remember how she looked at you at first like you were a freak or something?"

"Well yeah but we shouldn't talk about her beh-"

"Plus she's so mean to Ziva these days. I'm surprised she hadn't killed her with a paper clip yet!" Abby cut Tim off.

Meanwhile, a few blocks away from the school, Tony and Jeanne sat together on a park bench. Jeanne was really surprised Tony had called her. At first she thought he was upset about what she did but _he_ seemed guilty so she concluded that that wasn't it. Now, sitting right beside him in silence for two minutes, she got more and more nervous. She worried that he was actually feeling guilty about Friday and was apologizing to her. She would be happy about that but she was worried about what would happen if he realized what she had done. She concluded that maybe she jumped to conclusions way too fast. Although maybe he had finally decided that his so called friends aren't worth his time, she thought. Then Tony finally spoke.

"Look Jeanne, I'm really sorry about Friday. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that." He started.

"No you shouldn't have! But I totally forgive you. I mean I understand that you get confused sometimes with so much going on in your life." Jeanne said and leaned against his shoulder in attempt to finish this conversation quick and maybe avoid the topic about Ducky's party.

"Thanks." Tony said, a little confused that she had accepted his apology so quick. It has never happened before. He was expecting to have to beg for forgiveness, not that he was complaining about the situation he found himself in. But then what Jeanne said had settled in on him. "Wait a minute…confused? What was I confused about? I know I was wrong to have yelled at you like that but…"

Jeanne wanted to stop herself from starting the argument all over again but she couldn't help herself. It was out of her mouth before it registered in her brain. "I was talking about going to Ducky's party instead of Don's."

"What! I should make myself clear, I'm sorry about the fight but not the argument. I'm still going to Ducky's party. You do understand that I'm going to see Don next year but not Ducky right? It's obvious which is more important."

"Not to you apparently! Who cares about your friends' stupid party? Were you really close to Ducky anyways? He's like three years older than us and really let's admit his stories are kind of annoying."

"You know what," Tony started as he pushed Jeanne away from his shoulder, "Maybe you don't understand this but I love my friends. They may have their flaws but they're my friends and I don't appreciate it when people make fun of them. It's called loyalty. You should try it sometime. Maybe then you'll see what real friendship is all about and that it's not all about popularity or money!"

"How could you accuse me of…?" Jeanned drifted off, " You know what? I don't regret it at all. It serves you right, you bastard!"

"What in the world are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about how I ruined your 'party'" Jeanne mocked. It only made her smugger as Tony stood there all confused. It probably wasn't the smartest move but Jeanne was too outraged to care as she told Tony about the morning incident word by word.

By the end, Tony was…, he couldn't even find a word for what he was feeling. He was way beyond just angry. "How could you do that? That is just so…" He took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself. "Do you know how hard we planned for the good bye party! And you just spoiled every single bit of it. All because of what? Just because you're angry at me? I can't believe you would do that. I put up a lot with you especially when you talk about my friends in that tone of yours but you really crossed the line this time. You want me to choose between you and my friends? Fine! I don't even have to stop for a second to decide."

"Tony, honey, I'm so-"Jeanne tried as it finally sank into what she had done as Tony yelled at her. But Tony just put his hand up and cut her off.

"Don't. We're done here. I really believed it when you said you changed. That's why we got back together after what you did the last time. But I was clearly wrong to trust you again because you didn't become better. You've gotten worse. Just don't expect me to make the same mistakes again." Tony realized that it was a little cruel for him to say this to Jeanne especially while her friends were still hung up on the rumors that started up about them on Friday but he just couldn't take it anymore. He didn't even know how he was going to make it up to his friends.

He didn't look back as he left her there alone and headed for the mall where his friends were. He wanted to repair the damages but he didn't even know where to begin.

When he made it to the mall food court where his friends were just finishing their lunch, he suddenly lost his courage to go up to them especially as he spotted Ducky sitting with them. But it was too late as an overly hyper Abby called him."Tony! You've made it!"

"Hey guys" Tony said somewhat sheepishly which made them narrow their eyes. Tony was never sheepish. Even after he had realized that what he had done was immature.

"What's going on?" Kate asked for everybody at the table except for Ducky who had a pretty clear idea what was going on.

"I'm really sorry."

"What are you talking about?" Tim asked, absolutely confused.

"Especially you Ducky. It was supposed to be special and all because I was so stupid it's all ruined."

"No, Tony. It's alright, I do not mind."

"It's not! It was supposed to be a 'surprise' go away party where we could hang out for the last time. You were supposed to only enjoy the party, not worry about some stupid thing."

"What?" Abby asked even though she was afraid of what the answer would be.

"I'm sorry to everybody too. I know you've all worked hard to plan this and keep it a secret."

"Are you talking about…" Abby asked slowly, trying to convince herself that she wasn't hearing right and Tony was talking about something else. However that hope didn't last long as Tony nodded. "How could you!" Abby said as she launched herself against him punching his arm.

It was then that Ducky stood up and tried to stop Abby. "It's not his fault, Abby."

Abby glared at Tony and asked "How could it not be?"

"It really wasn't." Ducky said and started to tell them about what had happened with Jeanne even though he guessed that the look Tony gave him was begging him not to tell the story.

When he was done, everybody was shocked. They all knew that Jeanne was slightly mean but they didn`t think that she`ll go that far.

"It's really fine Tony. Don't blame yourself." Ducky tried to make Tony let go of the guilt.

"It's not!"

"Look at the bright side. Now I could get to plan the rest of the party with you. I could look at the guest list and who I want there and who I don't want there." Ducky suggested, trying to lighten the mood a little.

"But-"

"I don't mind it. Really. Actually I'm a little planner myself. I like to plan parties. I used to do it all the time for my mother for holiday dinners and such."

Not everybody was so convinced immediately but by the end of when they all finished desert, they were even able to joke about it a little.

"So Abby, is it really true that you're giving me a tea set?"

"Ducky! Do you really think I'm going to spoil the last surprise of my original 'surprise party'? No way. You're going to have to wait for that one." Abby told him and everybody laughed.

Yep it wasn't going to end up in too much of a disaster and that made Tony feel a little better. Not that he wasn't an idiot anymore for not seeing Jeanne for who she was, but still, she didn't ruin everything.

* * *

_Please review and tell me what you think. Reviews always inspire me and suggestions always help me make this story better. TBC_


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